"Young man? Young man!"
Haruto's body trembled as he woke up, the lingering pain of his bones being crushed before death made him groan in agony.
In front of him, the Wanhai Company boss who had woken him up looked troubled: "Are you sick? Angina?"
After a long while, Haruto recovered from the pain that lingered in his nerves, his face as pale as his hair.
He recognized that this was when he had just arrived in Hirano, so he calmed his breathing and asked, "Wha… what happened?"
"I should be asking what happened!"
The boss, seeing that he was fine, breathed a sigh of relief and said with some complaint: "You just came in and fell before you even spoke. If I hadn't been quick-witted enough to catch you, you might have ended up with a broken face!"
Haruto supported himself and stood up from the ground, shaking his head.
Sure enough, time had rewound again… After each death, would the entire plane of existence's time flow back to before his death?
He walked out of the hot spring inn and looked at the inn on the street corner opposite, which had a sign that read "Nekki-ya," his brows furrowed.
Two demons.
One was located in Nekki-ya, a female demon Nure-onna whose Blood Demon Art was her hair.
The other Ushi-oni's exact location was unknown. It had a bull's head and an octopus body, and the suckers on its tentacles had a paralyzing toxin. Its Blood Demon Art was also unknown.
What was the relationship between the two demons? Why didn't the Ushi-oni appear at first, and then immediately jumped out after the Nure-onna was killed?
Haruto stopped thinking about those twists and turns and simply returned to the Wanhai Company.
"Guest?"
"What meals are you serving now?" He pointed at the various seafood displayed in the cabinet: "Sea bream? Snow crab?"
Let the Nure-onna and Ushi-oni wait for a bit; he would fill his stomach first.
Tomioka Giyu arrived in Hirano a little later. Kanzaburo (his Kasugai Crow) told him that a Demon Slayer Corps member had already arrived before him.
As for who it was and where, Kanzaburo could only shake his head helplessly: "Giyuu, I am very old."
So Giyuu could only wander the streets until his gaze was drawn to a hot spring inn with a crowd of people at its entrance.
"What happened?"
"Good heavens, I heard that a young man from out of town got into a fight with Hachifuji Kazuma!"
"Hachifuji? Isn't that guy Hirano's famous big eater?"
"Yes, the guy who ate two hundred sea bream sushi in a row a while ago."
"Didn't he claim that all the sumo wrestlers in Tokyo couldn't out-eat him? How did he meet his match in Hirano?"
"That young man from out of town has white hair and is really handsome!"
White hair, handsome, big eater.
These few words rearranged and recombined in Tomioka Giyu's mind, and no matter how they were combined, they could only spell out Takanashi Haruto.
So Giyuu picked up his long sword and, like a swimming fish, squeezed through the onlookers and entered the shop.
The first thing he saw was an oversized Fat Man sitting at a table. He had a sumo wrestler's topknot, was sweating profusely, and was frantically stuffing sushi into his mouth.
Several sushi chefs next to him were also sweating profusely. Their movements were so fast, almost to the point of forgetting "craftsmanship," that they could barely keep up with the diner's eating speed.
Opposite the oversized Fat Man sat a young man with long, flowing white hair.
Compared to the profusely sweating Hachifuji Kazuma, the young man ate with ease, one sushi at a time, almost swallowing it without much chewing.
Tomioka Giyu stood by the table, looking at Hachifuji with pity.
How dare you compete with him?
How could you out-eat him?
Not to mention the more than twenty full boxes of eel rice on Fujikasane Mountain, even the 24 arm-length pickled fish that shocked Makomo for a whole year on Mt. Sagiri were already astonishing.
What's more, after eating those 24 pickled fish and several large bowls of hot pot, Haruto could still effortlessly wield his sword and perform a set of Flame Breathing moves.
Such a person… might have another world in his stomach.
Although the two were vastly different in size, anyone with eyes could see that Hachifuji Kazuma was already at his wit's end, while the young man from out of town… seemed to be able to eat another hundred sushi.
"Don't eat anymore, Hachifuji, give up, don't stuff yourself to death!"
Someone in the crowd shouted that.
Hachifuji Kazuma, who had originally intended to retreat, suddenly got carried away. His thick palm slapped the table, and he directly scooped the sushi rice from the bucket with a rice spoon and stuffed it into his mouth.
Haruto was startled and was wondering if he should do the same when the person opposite suddenly stopped moving.
"He's choking!"
Someone in the crowd shouted in a panic.
"It's over, from his stomach to his esophagus, it's all blocked!"
Haruto looked up. Hachifuji Kazuma's eyes were wide, and his pale, plump face was flushed crimson. It felt like he was about to suffocate.
Good heavens, if you can't eat it, don't eat it!
Haruto was about to step over to perform first aid when a stern-faced young man stood out beside him.
He first picked up a kettle and frantically poured water into Hachifuji's mouth. When the big man seemed to be failing, he turned the long sword in his hand and heavily patted Hachifuji's stomach and chest with the hilt.
After several times, Hachifuji finally let out a "wah" and vomited a mess of sushi rice mixed with water onto the floor.
He collapsed on the ground, exhausted and gasping for breath, at least his life was saved.
The onlookers around were in an uproar, not expecting that watching a big eating competition would almost lead to a death.
"Giyuu?" Haruto's eyes lit up: "You were assigned the mission? Have you eaten?"
Saying that, he pushed the sushi next to him towards Giyuu.
Tomioka Giyu's gaze swept over the mess on the ground, and he slowly but firmly shook his head: "I'm not hungry… What's going on?"
Haruto chuckled: "Don't even mention it. This person, for no reason, when I was here preparing to eat something, ran up to me out of nowhere and wanted to compete in a big eating contest, saying that whoever lost would pay for the other's meal…"
But looking at the current situation, Hachifuji had lost half his life and probably wouldn't be able to get up to pay the bill.
The farce ended hastily like that.
Haruto paid for his meal to the Wanhai Company boss, but the kind-hearted boss waved his hand and whispered:
"Thanks to you, look how good my business is now!"
Haruto chuckled, looking at the crowded hot spring inn, then recounted the coins: "Please prepare some takeout food for me, and also a box of baby rice cereal."
He still remembered Saori, who had lost her husband. If he didn't prepare these, she and her child, Rika, would go hungry tonight.
He took the bewildered Giyuu to visit the Arai family. Saori was still as wary as ever.
Haruto, who already knew about the Nure-onna in Nekki-ya, did not stay long and left with Giyuu.
"When did you arrive?" Tomioka Giyu asked.
"Around noon."
After half a month, Giyuu's hair seemed to have grown a little.
"Why didn't you reply to my letters?" Haruto complained: "I thought you hadn't received them, so I wrote several more."
"All the letters you sent me were taken by Makomo to read." Giyuu pouted: "And your letters were a mess, all about past stories."
"Makomo?"
"That girl learned from Sabito that you saved him, and she's determined to make you her goal."
Giyuu looked at the darkening sky and brought the conversation back on track: "What happened to the missing fishermen?"
"Hmm…" Haruto recalled the clues he had inquired about at the Wanhai Company.
"This is also a story.
Have you heard the legends of the Nure-onna and the Ushi-oni?"