Somehow Coulson seemed to feel Rui's grief as his head dissipated into ash with tears and muttering.
Tears flowed from the corners of his own eyes unconsciously.
Thud!
Heavy footsteps sounded. Out of the corner of his eye, Coulson caught a glimpse of a foot wearing boots falling beside him. Judging from the leg's size, it was a relatively tall man.
"A demon torn apart by his companions—what a pitiful fellow. Let me end your pain!"
The energetic voice sounded, and Coulson saw cold light reflected on the ground. The picture of a blade reflecting moonlight appeared in his mind unconsciously.
"Wait..."
Coulson shouted, but with only half his head, there was also a problem with his vocal cords. The words turned into a leaking, garbled noise before he could speak, and he couldn't stop the unknown mysterious person at all.
Seeing the cold light on the ground growing larger...
At the critical moment, Iron Man broke free and jumped out.
"Damn it, this thing is really disgusting!"
Iron Man tore the threads from his body that had become as soft as ordinary spider silk because of Rui's death, and looked up at the same time... Wearing the uniform of the Demon Slayer Corps with a flame-patterned haori, his hair red and yellow as if flames were burning, the man held his sword in the air (not noticing Coulson on the ground).
What is this weird guy doing?
How does this lump of metal move?
Tony was stunned.
The man was also stunned.
The air froze on the spot for a while.
"...Who are you?"
After being stunned for a while, Tony regained his senses first and asked.
While asking, he also looked around, searching for Coulson's figure.
Although he'd been wrapped in spider silk just now and couldn't see, his ears weren't deaf. After hearing the conversation between Coulson and Rui, there'd been rumbling and popping sounds.
He'd thought it was Coulson's trick to deceive Rui into leaving, then using some means to launch a sneak attack from behind.
As a result, as soon as he emerged, he saw this 'wonderful' scene.
"I am the Demon Slayer Corps' Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku! Who are you?" Kyojuro said, raising his blade and pointing at Tony. "A dead steel thing, yet it can act like a human. Are you some kind of monster or mountain god?"
"Monster? Mountain God?"
Tony was stunned. It took a while to react, and he couldn't help laughing.
"...Are you from some backward place with no internet access?"
"Internet?"
Kyojuro was stunned for a while, then laughed heartily. "I don't understand at all! Hahaha..."
Now it was Tony's turn to be dumbfounded.
How could someone say something so ignorant and be so unashamed?
His confusion was replaced by shame.
Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing.
Although Tony hadn't learned this idiom's allusion, he understood the truth.
As long as you don't show off mysteriously and pretend to understand, then there's no reason to be laughed at.
"Well, I probably understand what kind of person you are..."
Tony said, opened his faceplate, and introduced himself. "I'm Tony Stark, the world's smartest, most handsome, and strongest hero—Iron Man!"
However, although he was boasting like this, Tony completely forgot that his Mark armor's surface had been pitted by spider silk. Although it didn't affect actual function, in terms of appearance, it didn't match "handsome" or "strongest" at all.
But after Kyojuro heard it, he was still full of admiration for him.
"Oh, you're that Iron Man!?"
"Oh, you know me?"
"Don't know!"
Kyojuro's straightforward words left Tony speechless, but what he said next made him happy again.
"Although I don't know, since I came to this world, the most discussion I've heard is about the steel superhero... Wait, superhero... I understand! You're here to exterminate demons!"
"No, that's right. I came here on purpose because I knew there were demons endangering society here."
Tony accepted the compliment quite smugly.
After speaking, he remembered the business and asked, "By the way, where's the demon?"
"It has been beheaded by me!"
Kyojuro said, then suddenly apologized. "I'm very sorry—I took your prey!"
"It's okay, one demon and..."
The words stopped abruptly.
Tony suddenly reacted, blinking his eyes and looking at the flamboyant man before him, somewhat disbelieving. "You said the demon was beheaded by you?"
"Yes, I beheaded it in one strike."
Kyojuro answered simply and directly.
Tony continued asking, "Is that the white-haired kid who looked like a child?"
"Yes, that's him."
Saying that, Kyojuro felt somewhat regretful. "It's a pity he was just a demon. It would have been great if I'd met one of the Upper Ranks—maybe I could have gotten some good information."
Having said that, he blamed himself a little, muttering that he should have caught it alive for interrogation or something.
But Tony didn't listen to these words.
After confirming that Kyojuro had beheaded Rui, he was stunned...
In an instant, he'd killed someone who'd defeated several S.H.I.E.L.D. special teams, beaten himself, and shot down five armed helicopters.
This feeling was very uncomfortable.
Especially when he'd just been bragging in front of this person.
The result was...
In short, Tony's mood was very complicated right now.
But fortunately, he was thick-skinned and didn't pay much attention to these things, so he quickly adjusted his mentality.
Whoosh!
Tony took a deep breath and looked at Kyojuro with complicated eyes. "You just said you're the Flame Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps?"
"Ah, is there a problem?"
"One thing—you're not from this world!" Tony asked seriously.
He'd completely ignored Kyojuro's self-introduction because of his speech. Looking back now, wasn't this a top member of the Demon Slayer Corps that Tamayo had mentioned?
He was now openly confirming it.
"Oh, not from this world?"
Kyojuro scratched his head and smiled heartily. "I don't know either. I thought I was just going abroad, but I didn't expect it to be another world."
"..."
Tony was speechless.
After all, Japan in the Taisho era and New York in the United States in the 21st century had completely different landscapes!
How could he think it was simply coming to a foreign country?
"By the way, there's still a demon alive here. I'll let you kill it!"
At that moment, Kyojuro remembered, pointing to half a head on the ground.
Tony followed along and couldn't help exclaiming, "Coulson, why is it you!?"
"You finally remembered me!"
Coulson couldn't hold back the tears.
"Hey, you two know each other?"
"This..."
"Mr. Iron Man, I'm not a pedantic person, and I won't think it's absolutely forbidden to associate with bad people. But the nature of demons is absolutely evil toward human beings. Even if you're friends, you'll eventually be hurt by him."
Character Notes:
Upper Ranks - From: Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) (mentioned)
The top six demons of the Twelve Kizuki Far more powerful than Lower Ranks Each has killed numerous Hashira Marked with "Upper" kanji and numbers in their eyes Kyojuro mentions them as worthy opponents
Hashira (Pillars) - From: Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba)
The nine strongest swordsmen in the Demon Slayer Corps Each specializes in a different Breathing Style Kyojuro Rengoku is the Flame Hashira Capable of defeating Lower Rank demons with ease
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