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In her mind, the repulsive figure of Muzan surfaced once again.
The mere thought that there existed a possibility to kill Muzan caused Tamayo's breathing to become uncontrollably rapid, and her ten fingers hanging at her sides subconsciously clutched her clothes.
"Mhm, it's true."
Seemingly having seen through Tamayo's inner thoughts, Mitsuba first smiled and nodded in acknowledgment, then immediately added:
"However, the range only includes living people or other creatures. It doesn't include demons."
"What do you mean?"
"It means that demons don't have threads of causality on their bodies."
Mitsuba replied seriously.
As her words fell, her pupils instantly transformed into the shape of mandala flowers.
In her eyes at this moment, the Tamayo before her was completely empty, completely different from those two Demon Slayers earlier who had been entangled with numerous "blood-red threads."
The moment her Blood Demon Art awakened, Mitsuba had already observed this.
Including herself and the Tamayo before her, neither of them had any threads of causality on their bodies.
Not even a single one.
Yet on humans, they were densely packed. Even the cats and dogs by the roadside had quite a few threads of causality.
Faced with this stark contrast, Mitsuba could only arrive at one conclusion—
All humans who had been transformed into demons had no threads of causality.
Because demons were different from all other living beings in this world. They were not naturally occurring creatures, and their birth was not within the gods' expectations.
Therefore, the fate of demons was naturally not within the gods' control either.
And Mitsuba, who had usurped the gods' authority, naturally could not see the so-called threads of causality on demons.
Here, Mitsuba discovered the second possible limitation of her Blood Demon Art—
That it was ineffective against demons.
Because they had no threads of causality, even the weakest demon could not be affected by Mitsuba's Blood Demon Art.
The reason she said "possibly" was because Mitsuba's Blood Demon Art wasn't limited to just "manipulating threads of causality."
Besides that, her Blood Demon Art actually had other uses, she just hadn't used them yet...
Well, she could test all that later when she encountered them.
For now, she needed to think carefully about where to go for a stroll...
Thinking this, Mitsuba looked at Tamayo beside her, who had suddenly become dejected and was about to turn and leave, and suddenly had an idea.
"Don't rush off, Miss Tamayo."
Tamayo, whose face was full of disappointment after learning that Mitsuba's Blood Demon Art couldn't affect demons at all, stopped upon hearing this, turned back to look at her, and asked:
"Is there something else? With your current strength, you shouldn't need me to watch over you anymore, right?"
"Of course there's something else."
Mitsuba smiled and proactively extended her hand in invitation:
"When I was human, I hardly ever truly stepped out of this small town, nor had I ever seen the world outside the city walls with my own eyes.
I wonder, Miss Tamayo, who constantly follows by Lord Muzan's side and is widely experienced, would you be willing to temporarily serve as my guide for a while and help me familiarize myself with the outside world?
I think you certainly wouldn't refuse, would you?"
"..."
On the other side, at the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.
"Another Demon Hunter has passed away."
It was currently noon. Yoriichi and Michikatsu both happened to not be out on missions. After a long time, the brothers once again sat in the same room eating lunch together.
And Michikatsu, who never liked to speak during meals, today also rarely opened his mouth to bring up the strange events that had been happening in the Demon Slayer Corps recently.
"Just like the previous incidents, they all passed away silently in their sleep. There were no external injuries on their bodies, nor any signs of poisoning.
What's more important is that the one who passed away this time was also a marked Demon Slayer..."
No one knew when it started, but every once in a while, marked Demon Slayers in the Demon Slayer Corps would suddenly pass away.
Without any warning, after an ordinary night's sleep, they would just quietly depart.
This bizarre situation had currently attracted high attention from the Demon Slayer Corps. Even the Corps Master was closely monitoring the investigation progress of this matter.
But regrettably, the physicians within the Demon Slayer Corps had so far been unable to reach any effective conclusions.
"I previously heard a physician mention that those deceased Demon Hunters were likely all attacked by some extremely special Blood Demon Art that we had never encountered before. What do you think, Yoriichi? Yoriichi?"
Looking at Yoriichi, who had been holding his chopsticks and staring blankly the whole time, Michikatsu frowned slightly.
"Hm? Sorry, were you calling me just now, Elder Brother?"
Suddenly coming back to his senses, Yoriichi hurriedly asked.
Looking at the inexplicably nervous expression on his younger brother's face, Michikatsu's frown deepened.
"Yoriichi, ever since you returned from your last mission, I've often seen you sitting alone in a daze.
What's wrong? Did you encounter something out there?"
"Elder Brother, I..."
Facing Michikatsu's inquiry, Yoriichi subconsciously wanted to open his mouth to explain.
But when the words reached his lips, he seemed to suddenly remember something, closed his mouth again, and his expression subsequently dimmed. He only shook his head and said:
"No, it's nothing..."
Nothing?
Can you call that reaction "nothing"?
Michikatsu didn't press further, but instead began to rapidly recall what had happened to Yoriichi recently.
As the only person in the Demon Slayer Corps who constantly watched over Yoriichi every moment, as his elder brother, Michikatsu naturally remembered these matters clearly.
Yet he found nothing.
After recalling all the major and minor events that had happened to Yoriichi during this period, Michikatsu completely couldn't find anything that could cause Yoriichi to show such a conflicted expression.
Thus, Michikatsu continued to push his memories further back.
All the way back to over a year ago, he suddenly remembered something.
That was what happened after Yoriichi returned to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters the first time he went to visit their younger sister Mitsuba.
During that period, every day Yoriichi would come before him and put on a strange expression of wanting to speak but not knowing how to say it.
It wasn't until Michikatsu finally couldn't bear it anymore and took the initiative to ask that he learned Yoriichi actually wanted him to go back to the Tsugikuni household with him next time to visit Mitsuba.
Regarding this, Michikatsu, who had always felt guilty toward Mitsuba and his own wife and child, naturally couldn't give a positive promise.
Of course, that wasn't the point.
The point was that the Yoriichi before him right now was once again showing an expression similar to that of a year ago.
Michikatsu felt that he perhaps already guessed the answer.
"Yoriichi, you went to see Mitsuba again, didn't you?"
Picking up his bowl and chopsticks, Michikatsu asked in a calm tone.
Completely unable to figure out how his elder brother guessed this, Yoriichi, who was not good at lying at all, first froze, then responded with a dim expression:
"Yes..."
As expected.
Understanding in his heart, Michikatsu nodded slightly, then continued to ask:
"Has Mitsuba been doing well lately?"
Yoriichi fell into silence.
In his mind, the scene of Mitsuba sitting alone in that pitch-black room with only faint candlelight surfaced once again.
His breathing subconsciously became rapid, his heartbeat involuntarily quickened, and a strong sense of restlessness welled up in his heart.
Under the influence of this uncontrollable restlessness, Yoriichi subconsciously snapped the chopsticks in his hand with force.
"Mitsuba's condition..."
He lowered his head, and in the end, still couldn't bring himself to lie.
"Is not good."