At the House of the Wisteria Crest, in the bathhouse—
More precisely, it was a hot spring.
Only now did Sui understand why Fujiwara had gone to such lengths to establish the House of the Crest here.
A spring source connected to Mount Inunaki lay beneath the grounds, and the water flowed through carefully laid pipes into a marble bathing pool. Sui relaxed so thoroughly that even her pores seemed to open. A faint flush rose to her cheeks, and she opened her eyes, her clear, water-bright pupils shining even more vividly through the steam.
"It seems you're quite pleased, Lady Sui," Lady Anka said as she entered wearing a light bathrobe.
"So you really did come in after all…" Sui froze for a moment, her gaze drifting, quite unintentionally, to the woman's ample chest.
It was not that she cared that much… only that she had never really seen the body of such a mature woman before.
Kannazuki Rin's figure had been closer to Sui's own—both of them tall and slender.
"There's no need to worry. At your stage of development, Lady Sui, you'll surely have a perfect figure in the future," Lady Anka said with a smile as she came closer, clearly unsurprised that Sui's eyesight was fine.
By now, they already knew that Sui's habit of keeping her eyes closed was simply one of the ways she sensed demons.
Lady Anka sat down beside her. "Still, the children of the Demon Slayer Corps all seem so young, yet so stubborn. They're just boys and girls, really, but they're out there risking their lives against demons. Meanwhile, we adults can do little more than support you from the rear. It makes us seem rather useless."
"Everyone has their own role to play," Sui replied. "When it comes to hunting demons, every part of the whole is vital. Swordsmiths, trainers, the Houses of the Wisteria Crest, the Kakushi—without all of you, we'd have far too many things to worry about."
Lady Anka laughed softly. "That sounded very official. For a moment, I felt as though I were listening to the governor deliver a speech."
"I'll take that as praise," Sui said.
She sank her chin beneath the hot spring water, blowing bubbles.
Her hair spread through the water like drifting seaweed.
"By the way, Lady Sui… are you married?" Lady Anka asked.
The bubbles rising around Sui abruptly multiplied. She lifted her chin from the water and asked, puzzled, "Why would you think that?"
Just moments ago the woman had been lamenting how young the Demon Slayer Corps members were, mere children. Why, then, had she suddenly jumped to asking whether Sui was married?
"Because your air is not that of a young girl," Lady Anka said. "You feel more like a married woman. I'm seldom wrong about such things. And you always wear your hair pinned up, which is often the mark of a married woman as well."
Sui was just about to protest when she realized Lady Anka had moved behind her and was already massaging her shoulders.
The pressure was exactly right.
Sui let out a soft, contented sound.
"But this time, I was mistaken," Lady Anka said quietly from behind her. "I've seen your eyes now, and a person's eyes do not lie. You are a gentle person—so gentle that one naturally thinks of motherhood. But in truth, there is no romantic affection in your gaze. The kindness you show the world is simply your courtesy."
She smiled. "With that being the case, I wonder how many young men will founder and sink because of you. So many children of this era have lived such painful lives, never once tasting what it means to be loved. That sort of kindness from you could easily become a beautiful dream they cannot escape."
South Factory District, Osaka. Nightfall.
This was one of Osaka's most infamous slums. Shrouded year-round in smoke and soaked in runoff and sewage, it reeked so badly that ordinary people would rather not even go near it.
And yet tonight, it welcomed a guest.
Beggars in broken houses, wanderers resting in abandoned shrines, and women of the pleasure quarters all turned their eyes toward the newcomer.
A dark blue skirt. A crimson haori. A lovely face with closed eyes.
She looked like some noble young lady from the upper classes.
A red-sheathed sword hung at her waist, and in both hands she carried a gilded incense burner.
Her polished black leather shoes stepped into the filthy water without so much as a splash—at most, they stirred a faint ripple. In other words, the young woman walked lightly, almost as though she weighed nothing at all.
She passed by wooden shacks where women called out to customers, by ruined temples where drifters slept, by heaps of refuse where beggars clustered together. Yet no one dared approach her or harass her. They had no idea why such a refined lady had come here, but they knew one thing: if anyone laid hands on her, this whole district might very well be erased by the next day.
The lower one lived, the better one understood how to read the air—and how to recognize who the truly dangerous people were.
The incense burner trailed a strange, aromatic smoke around her body.
The onlookers whispered among themselves.
"She's gorgeous. Makes your heart itch just looking at her."
"Why don't you try your luck, then? Think she's like one of those cheap women you can buy for three yen?"
"That incense burner must be worth a fortune."
"Oh, give it a rest. She only carries it because she can't stand the air we breathe. Don't you know how much this place stinks?"
"Stinks? Does it?"
"That's because you're marinated in it, idiot."
Every murmur reached Sui's ears.
Beyond the human voices, there were other sounds too.
Like the low growl of beasts.
Sui brushed a hand over the bronze lid of the burner. Inside was no rare incense at all.
It was her blood.
Osaka's terrain was too sprawling and tangled to conduct a thorough purge quickly. This was not some mountain wilderness, either, so even the Kasugai crows—normally so useful in passing information—were of limited help here.
So Sui had fallen back on the old method.
She used her rare blood to lure the demons into revealing themselves.
She had no illusions about drawing out White Snake directly, but if she killed every lesser demon in the city, any further hidden movement would become far easier to notice.
Her figure gradually vanished into the darkness of the slums.
The demons lurking in the shadows were already poised to strike.
Sui's right hand rested on the hilt of her sword.
"One," she said.
Hachiu flashed from its sheath, the dark red blade cutting through a demon's neck in a single smooth stroke.
She kept moving deeper in.
"Two… three… four…"
Sui swung her sword. She did not appear to be using much force, yet every demon that rushed her was sent reeling as though struck by a massive hammer. The blade severed their necks with a single, effortless blow.
A hunter of demons—precise, elegant.
One who understood perfectly how to kill with the least expenditure of time and effort.
Sui caught the scent rising from the incense burner. A faint flush colored her face as she turned her wrist and cleanly beheaded another lunging demon.
"Five."
A small smile touched her lips as black demon blood dripped from the blade.
Carrying the incense burner in both hands, she walked through the darkest corners of the city and took the heads of more than a dozen demons.
No wonder the Master had said Osaka's situation was deeply strange. On the surface the city looked peaceful, but there were far too many lesser demons hiding within it.
In any other town or village, one might travel dozens of miles before even hearing a rumor of a demon.
In a single night, there were no more lesser demons left in Osaka.
And yet among the city's elegant ladies, the new topic of conversation became the tale of the Fragrant Burner Phantom Woman who had appeared the previous night.
Sui heard every word of it, of course.
"She must be a pitiful woman abandoned by her husband! A ghost formed after death!"
"No, no—I think she's a sorrowful ghost mother, wandering the streets of Osaka in search of her lost child!"
Sui sighed. The incense in her burner had already burned out long ago.
It was true enough that they preferred their demon hunts to be misunderstood as ghost stories. But why, in every version of the rumor, was she either some abandoned wife or grieving mother?
Did she really look that mature?
"Perhaps she's a mountain spirit searching for her husband!" one woman in kimono suggested.
"I heard that once, in Mount Shakara, there lived a beautiful serpent goddess. In the end, the village that worshiped and protected her vanished without explanation, and even the shrine to the serpent goddess disappeared. People in the mountains said the serpent goddess took human form and fell in love with a man—but that man deceived her and left the mountain."
"Heavens! Then could that be the serpent goddess of Mount Shakara? Has she come here searching for her beloved?"
The ladies continued their discussion, their talk gradually turning toward old tales of a serpent deity.
From the shadows, Sui lifted the burner.
A black motorcar rolled up in the distance, and Fujiwara stepped out to open the door for her.
"Do you know the legend of the serpent goddess of Mount Shakara?" Sui asked softly as she settled into the back seat.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 126)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter134)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 87
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 79
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 73
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 49
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 45
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 45
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 31
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 27
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 26
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