Yuuki went missing three days ago.
That day, after he returned from fishing, he went to deliver fresh seafood to two hot spring inns and never came back, even late at night."
"Does he often come home late?"
"No, never. After Rika was born, he never came home late."
Haruto stroked his chin: "So the problem lies with those two hot spring inns?"
Saori just shook her head: "I don't know."
The young man hesitated, then asked: "Why would others say… your husband ran off with a geisha?"
"They're talking nonsense!"
Saori raised her voice and snapped, and with her voice, the half-asleep Rika was startled and began to cry softly.
Her momentum deflated, and she hugged the baby, gently swaying: "Rika, my Rika…"
After a while, Saori whispered: "Perhaps this is retribution."
Haruto didn't speak, appearing to listen intently… Three years ago, the country boy Yuuki met Saori, a geisha from Asakusa, at a town festival.
Saori was very beautiful and skilled at seducing men. Yuuki, from a small place, couldn't resist the temptation, abandoned his parents who raised him and his underage siblings, and followed Saori to Asakusa.
What kind of job could a young man who only knew how to fish do in bustling Tokyo?
Of course, it was all sorts of lowly, dirty, and exhausting work.
The young man, who grew up under the expectations of his parents in the countryside, lived at the very bottom of Asakusa, watching his beloved Saori return to a life of entertaining men with her beauty, and felt immense pain in his heart.
Saori also had genuine feelings for Yuuki; when she was alone and helpless in Tokyo, Yuuki's admiration gave her the confidence to survive.
So, one day after the New Year, the two of them secretly fled Asakusa together.
Saori stole her madam's purse, took Yuuki, and escaped the Red-light district's trackers by train, finally settling boldly in Chiba Prefecture, adjacent to Tokyo.
With that money, the young couple lived a good life.
Yuuki fished to support the family, and Saori became a capable wife, supporting her husband and raising their child in harmony.
"But Yuuki swore an oath before the gods to me that he would never betray me and would live with me forever…"
Saori's shoulders trembled, and tears silently streamed down her nose.
"There's no conclusion yet."
Haruto said: "What are the names of those two hot spring inns?"
Saori looked up, her eyes blurred with tears: "…What do you mean?"
"Perhaps it really is the hot spring inn's problem? To so hastily think of your husband as a deserter… What are you working so hard for, then?"
Perhaps it was unwillingness, or perhaps it was truly absolute trust in her husband, but Haruto got the names of the two hot spring inns.
One of them was called Wanhai Company, the same one he had inquired about when he first arrived in Hirano.
A layer of goosebumps rose on Haruto's arm.
A hot spring inn filled with delicious sea bream, fresh lobster, and sweet king crab, and yet a man-eating demon might be lurking within!
This was simply too terrifying!
He had just blundered in like a greenhorn back then!
If he had been trapped… he would have truly become a fool.
"I should go investigate the other one first."
Haruto made up his mind, deciding to enter another hot spring inn called Nekki-ya to investigate before other Demon Slayer Corps members arrived.
As evening fell, the fishermen who had toiled all day shuffled in their wooden clogs to the brightly lit "Hot Spring Street" in town. If Tokyoites went to Asakusa and Yoshiwara Yukaku for entertainment, then Hirano's Hot Spring Street was a good place for Chiba residents to relax.
Nekki-ya was located in the most bustling spot. Haruto wanted to blend in with the crowd to enter but was stopped by the guard at the entrance.
"Swordsmen are not allowed inside."
When the main path was blocked, he could only take a hidden one.
Haruto effortlessly scaled the wall and jumped into Nekki-ya, wrapping his nichirin blade in his haori, and strolled casually through the hot spring inn.
It looked no different from hot spring baths in later generations, with crowds of people soaking in the hot water like dumplings, a hot towel on their heads.
Visually, there seemed to be no problem… Haruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his consciousness spreading out like a surging tide.
Hmm, so hot spring inns aren't all just for soaking… There were people scrubbing backs, people massaging feet, and also… Haruto raised an eyebrow, skipping over the rooms where people were collectively heading towards the great harmony of life, and meticulously scanned the hidden rooms in the shadows.
Nothing found.
Could he really be an 'European Emperor' (lucky person)? Was that Wanhai Company the real ghost house?
He frowned and retracted his consciousness. Passing by that harmonious room, he suddenly noticed something was off.
Why was one person's consciousness missing?
The blurry consciousnesses of a man and a woman that had been there just now, now only the female remained.
"It happened so fast… Have they already left?"
Haruto sensed something was wrong and turned to walk towards that direction.
The closer he got, the clearer the interior of that room became in his consciousness.
He saw a woman half-sitting in the single hot spring bath inside the room, her long hair disheveled, licking her palms with a satisfied expression, like a beast after a full meal.
Those palms… crisscrossed with bulging veins, large bones, sharp nails—
They were clearly demon claws!
This woman sitting in the hot spring was a man-eating demon!
Just then, the long-haired demoness felt she was being watched and bared her teeth at the empty air, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs!
"Hmph…" Haruto grunted, his consciousness surging back into his body like a tide once more.
Should he say he was lucky or unlucky? The first time he tried to act as a scout to investigate the situation, he just happened to witness a demon eating a human.
Haruto ran frantically, his haori with its green mountain embroidery fluttering with his movement, the nichirin blade already gripped in his hand.
"Clang!"
The white-haired young man arrived at the room where he had detected the demon in his consciousness and kicked open the wooden door.
The room was empty; let alone a demon, there wasn't even a human figure.
Only the single hot spring bath was still steaming.
"Escaped?"
He walked forward and leaned his head to look into the hot spring.
"Ho!"
In the slightly yellowish spring water, countless human bones were soaking!
This room… was the lair of that long-haired demoness!
These human remains were from people who had died at an unknown time, their flesh and bones completely devoured.
It was also unknown if Yuuki's body was among them.
"Creak—"
The wooden door, which Haruto had kicked open and then closed again due to the rebound, was pushed open once more.
A young girl with beautiful black hair timidly poked half her head in, her clear, glass-bead-like eyes full of apprehension.
"Excuse me… Who are you looking for?"
Haruto didn't speak, quickly turning to glance at the hot spring.
The slightly yellowish hot spring water carried a distinct sulfurous smell, and the bath was spotlessly clean, as if the scene of scattered human remains just moments ago had been Haruto's hallucination.
"Are you my 예약 (reserved) guest? Can we start now?"
Seeing Haruto remain silent, the girl revealed half her body, the collar of her kimono practically falling to her waist, revealing a large expanse of white skin on her upper body.
Haruto narrowed his misty blue eyes, a mocking smile playing on his lips.
"Madam—or perhaps Grandma, the one who turned you into a demon didn't tell you that when you encounter a Demon Slayer Swordsmen with keen senses…"
He bent down, gripping his blade, tensing his body like a fully drawn bowstring.
"You should first cover up your stench, shouldn't you?!"
Hot breath ignited his chest, and the long blade swung, igniting a shower of sparks.