Under the cover of night, Kawagishi raced through the forest. From what he had learned through Black Wolf Fang’s memories, he knew that the town ahead was called Shiqiao Town—a place far more prosperous than the one at the foot of the mountain where he had been before. He intended to search for Tanjiro, but he wasn’t entirely sure of his location. First he needed to gather information in Shiqiao Town to confirm his whereabouts, and then he could head to the old town to look for Tanjiro.

  At a bright, moonlit brook, Kawagishi slowed his pace. He bowed his head and let his eyes drift slowly over the mirror-like surface of the clear water. He was relieved not to see a hideous, vicious demon’s face staring back at him.

  “Whew, thank goodness,” he murmured.

  Looking at his reflection, he saw that he still resembled his former self—though his complexion now had a sickly pallor, giving him a somewhat fragile and eerie look. Yet when he opened his mouth, a full set of sharp fangs became visible.

  “These fangs… I should be able to control them, right?”

  His claws, which could transform into razor-sharp blades at the mere thought of it and then revert to their original shape, gave him hope that his fangs might behave similarly. Concentrating on them, Kawagishi attempted to retract his fangs.

  After a while, the row of fangs gradually morphed into a smooth, even set of teeth—though two of them remained pointed, merely shrinking and shortening slightly, stubbornly fixed in place.

  “Alright then, they look a bit like little tiger fangs—actually, I quite like them. I’ll keep them as they are.”

  Originally, Kawagishi had planned to crush them to test whether he could control their regeneration, but upon seeing their new shape, he decided they were acceptable as they were.

  Glancing disdainfully at his dusty, bloodstained clothes and body, Kawagishi leaped into the brook. The once-clear water immediately turned murky and dull. A few small fish fry could be seen, belly-up, floating near the surface. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Kawagishi patted his head and then submerged his face in the cool water, relishing the refreshing sensation as the liquid flowed over him.

  “This brook seems too shallow; there appears to be a larger pool further down,” he observed.

  “Let’s head there—the water here only reaches up to my chest, and the banks are narrow, less than two meters wide. It’s enough for a bath, but I want to fully let my body relax and enjoy the water.”

  Lately, he had felt as if an inexhaustible reserve of energy surged within him, an exuberance waiting to be released. Black Wolf Fang had given him a great deal of strength, yet Kawagishi still needed time to fully digest it and make it his own.

  Without raising his head above water, Kawagishi swam swiftly toward the pool he recalled from Black Wolf Fang’s memory. He loved the feeling of being completely immersed in water—it allowed him, if only for a moment, to forget all his troubles. Occasionally, he surfaced for a few breaths of air. After about ten minutes, he reached the pool.

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  “Black Wolf Fang, don’t tell me you’ve mistaken this pool for something else,” he teased to himself.

  “No, this is clearly a lake!” came an echo of his internal thought.

  Looking out, he saw the lake’s surface shimmering under the moonlight, with the occasional large fish leaping as if searching for a mythical dragon gate. Kawagishi paused for a moment before entering the lake via a tributary.

  He dove beneath the surface, descending until he reached a depth of roughly ten meters. A large carp—over a meter long—drifted slowly past him. With a mischievous grin, Kawagishi reached out and tugged at the carp’s tail, causing it to jerk violently and then swim away, its face twisted in alarm. The sight made him chuckle at the creature’s bewildered expression.

  For a brief moment, the crushing weight of responsibility and pressure seemed to lift from him. Then, in a burst of energy, Kawagishi accelerated underwater. Demon physiology was indeed formidable—like an arrow released from a bow, he dashed toward the carp. Sensing danger, the carp panicked, losing its sense of direction and darting quickly toward the surface. Kawagishi pursued it; the gap between them closed steadily.

  Reaching out, Kawagishi’s hand nearly grasped the carp’s tail—just a finger’s breadth away—when the fish jerked its tail one more time, propelling itself out of the water. Even though the carp leapt, Kawagishi’s speed was greater. In midair, he managed to catch the carp, then vaulted out of the water onto the opposite bank, soaking wet. He patted the carp briefly before casually tossing it back into the lake, watching as it plunged into the deep, dark water in a panic.

  Just then, Kawagishi felt a gentle breeze swirling around his neck—a soft wind that suddenly brushed upward and snipped a lock of hair at his temple.

  “Hmm? What’s with this wind?”

  Lifting his head, he saw a graceful figure, as delicate as a butterfly, bathed in moonlight, looking down upon him from above. In his dazed state, Kawagishi imagined vast fields of purple butterflies dancing under the moon. At that moment, a pair of very unusual eyes met his own.

  In this strange world, many people had unusual eye and hair colors, but Kawagishi swore that these eyes were the most uniquely beautiful he had ever seen. Framing a delicate face, the eyes exhibited a gradient of purple from bottom to top—at their darkest, an invisible line divided the iris, with the upper part a milky gray-white. To Kawagishi, those two-toned eyes were mesmerizingly beautiful.

  “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

  A clear, melodious, and gentle voice reached his ears.

  He paused for a moment before replying calmly, “I’m just passing through here; I felt like taking a bath.”

  The hand holding a Nichirin Blade, which belonged to the stranger, was concealed behind her back, trembling slightly. For a moment, Kawagishi nearly mistook her for a demon and almost slashed her. She had been leaping between trees earlier, searching for malevolent demons in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and Kawagishi’s sudden emergence from the water had startled her greatly. Had she not retracted her blade at the last moment, she might have ended his life.