Mt. Sagiri, training ground.
On a massive boulder that would take several people to encircle, a young man lay quietly, the gentle breeze brushing against his cheeks.
Above his head, a girl standing as gracefully as a butterfly leaned in, her face slowly approaching his.
It was a picturesque scene.
That is, if one ignored the slightly venomous words slipping from her lips.
Hearing the 'venomous' whispers by his ear, Su Yan opened his eyes.
Shinobu Kocho's amethyst eyes immediately filled his vision.
Su Yan looked completely at ease, showing not a hint of embarrassment. With the gentle tone of a boy next door, he said, "Shinobu, you're here?"
"Oh my, the corpse actually spoke?"
Shinobu muttered to herself in feigned astonishment. "It seems to have reanimated. I'll have to burn it with fire."
Su Yan hurriedly sat up. Looking at Shinobu talking to herself, he sweatdropped. "Hey, hey, Shinobu, isn't that a bit much?"
"Didn't Mr. Scumbag say he was coming to see friends?"
Dark lines formed on Shinobu's forehead as she spoke with suppressed anger. "So what is Mr. Scumbag doing here now? Lying around playing dead?"
"Alright, alright, my mistake. I'll go back to the Butterfly Mansion with you right now, okay?" Su Yan said earnestly, placing his hands on Shinobu's shoulders.
He had promised to go to the Butterfly Mansion but kept delaying it, first running to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters and then to Mt. Sagiri.
If he hadn't just removed the condition of killing the Hand Demon from his trade with Makomo, he might have even needed to make a detour to Mt. Fujikasane.
He was indeed in the wrong.
However...
Su Yan looked at the displeased Shinobu and asked curiously, "Did you see Sabito and the others just now?"
"If you mean the group that went down the mountain earlier, yes, I saw them." Shinobu found Su Yan's question somewhat baffling but nodded in response anyway.
Hearing this, Su Yan's attitude did a complete one-eighty.
He demanded righteously, "Then what are you standing there for? Hurry up and give my back a massage."
He hadn't followed them down the mountain because he didn't want to intrude on the touching reunion between Sabito's group and Sakonji Urokodaki.
After all, that was a meeting between master and disciples.
As an outsider, standing by and watching would have been inappropriate.
But since Shinobu had already seen them, wasn't her current attitude toward him a bit uncalled for?
Logically speaking, when it came to her older sister Kanae Kocho, Shinobu should be even more anxious than he was.
Su Yan felt he had firmly grasped Shinobu's weak point.
What he didn't know, however, was that while Shinobu had indeed seen Sabito and the others, it wasn't at the bottom of the mountain with Tanjiro's group.
She had simply bumped into them on her way up.
Therefore, she had absolutely no idea who Sabito and the others were.
Nor did she know that Su Yan possessed the ability to manifest souls.
So, faced with Su Yan's pushy demands, Shinobu clenched her small fists and offered with a 'friendly' smile, "Would you like me to use my Nichirin Sword to scrape your back instead?"
"Hmm?"
Su Yan cast a suspicious glance at Shinobu.
Her tone felt a bit off.
He asked again to confirm, "Are you sure you really saw Sabito and the others just now?"
"I saw them. And?" Shinobu replied.
For a moment, Su Yan couldn't quite figure out what was going through her head.
If you said she was anxious...
She did seem quite anxious.
But it didn't seem like the kind of anxious Su Yan had imagined.
Instead, it was an impatient sort of urgency.
It was as if dragging him back to the Butterfly Mansion was nothing more than a chore she had to complete.
"Never mind, forget it. Let's go, back to the Butterfly Mansion."
Unable to make sense of it, Su Yan decided to stop overthinking. He patted the dust off his pants and stood up from the giant rock.
With that, ignoring Shinobu's protests, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her along to head down the mountain.
"Mr. Su Yan, Miss Shinobu, are you leaving already?"
Seeing the two coming down, Tanjiro immediately went up to greet them. "Won't you stay a little longer? Have a meal before you go? Mr. Urokodaki said he's going to cook a huge feast to celebrate properly."
"It definitely calls for a celebration."
Thinking of Sabito and the others, Su Yan nodded in agreement with Tanjiro's words.
However, he glanced at Shinobu beside him and said, "But we have matters to attend to, so we'll be taking our leave. Tanjiro, you and your brother stay here and focus on learning Water Breathing from Mr. Urokodaki."
"Once I take care of Muzan, I'll be counting on you guys to deal with the rest of the demons he created."
Saying that, Su Yan placed a hand on Tanjiro's shoulder and gave it two heavy pats.
As for the demons other than Muzan, unless they possessed a Blood Demon Art, Su Yan didn't have the time or energy to waste on them.
And since Tanjiro had previously expressed his desire to contribute to Muzan's defeat...
It was only natural to leave this task to him.
That was, assuming the Demon Slayer Corps hadn't already wiped out all the demons by the time Tanjiro finished his training.
Otherwise, he'd have nothing left to do after graduating and killing the Hand Demon specifically reserved for him.
"I understand. We will study hard under Mr. Urokodaki."
Tanjiro nodded solemnly, no longer trying to make Su Yan stay. He then said with a serious expression, "However, while Shigeru and I are learning Water Breathing from Mr. Urokodaki, I'll leave Nezuko and Hanako in your care, Mr. Su Yan."
"Don't worry, leave it to me. I'll definitely take good care of your sisters. After all, Nezuko and Hanako are so adorable."
Su Yan smiled in response. "Once you graduate from Mr. Urokodaki's tutelage, I promise to return your two beautiful sisters to you safe and sound."
Tanjiro muttered in a voice so faint that only he could hear, 'Actually, you don't have to return them...'
If Su Yan could take care of Nezuko for the rest of her life, that would be for the best.
Tanjiro had a lot of trust in Su Yan, who had been helping them all along.
He was a good man, worthy of entrusting his sisters' futures to.
"What was that?"
This time, Su Yan genuinely didn't catch it, as Tanjiro's voice was not only quiet but also mumbled.
"No."
Seeing that Su Yan hadn't heard, Tanjiro didn't repeat himself. He quickly waved his hands in denial. "It's nothing. I just meant, please take care, Mr. Su Yan."
With that, he grabbed his younger brother Shigeru Kamado and ran toward Sakonji Urokodaki.
Under the sunlight.
A row of figures wearing fox masks stood beside Sakonji Urokodaki, who wore his red Tengu mask, waving in Su Yan's direction.
Even though they were a group of deceased spirits, they didn't evoke the slightest bit of fear.
In fact, they seemed far more human than those man-eating demons.
But right at that moment, Sabito, standing next to Sakonji Urokodaki, nudged Makomo, who was still foolishly standing there waving at Su Yan.
Pushed by Sabito, Makomo froze for a second.
Then she remembered that she was already Su Yan's Nen Beast and was supposed to leave with him.
So, she broke into a light jog, hurriedly chasing after Su Yan and Shinobu as they departed from Mt. Sagiri.
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