Cold sweat beaded across Kiyohiko’s forehead from the pain, but he did not lower his hand.
Instead, he displayed the wound being corroded by the poison directly before Shinobu.
He watched the damaged flesh writhe with difficulty, attempting to regenerate only to be repeatedly corroded and destroyed by the lingering poison.
His voice was slightly hoarse, but exceptionally serious.
“My regenerative ability can still put up a fight even after my neck has been cut by a Nichirin Sword.
But now, the tiny amount of poison remaining in your blood is preventing my cells from functioning normally, as though they’ve encountered their natural enemy.”
He raised his head and stared intensely at the young woman standing before him, whose expression had become somewhat frozen.
“If this is what it does to me, then what kind of burden are your organs, blood vessels, and nerves enduring when you force this substance into your human body every day?”
The pain was not limited to his flesh.
It felt as though countless tiny needles were traveling through his blood vessels.
Kiyohiko could not imagine how the petite young woman before him—who always wore such a gentle smile—could casually maintain enough poison inside her body to kill an Upper Rank demon.
“Why would you go this far?”
“Even if it’s for the sake of killing demons… is this kind of suicidal method truly worth it?”
The dojo fell deathly silent.
The only sound was the skin-crawling sizzle of Kiyohiko’s corroding palm.
Shinobu lowered her gaze toward her completely healed left hand before looking at Kiyohiko’s mangled right hand.
An extremely complicated emotion flashed through the violet eyes that always seemed to be smiling.
There was surprise, confusion, and a faint trace of anger at having one of her hidden cards exposed.
This idiot demon!
He doesn’t know anything.
He’s a demon himself, so what right does he have to say these things to me?
Why would he do something like this…?
However, she quickly concealed everything beneath her familiar mask.
“The experiment was extremely successful.”
Shinobu’s voice suddenly became cheerful, as though the oppressive atmosphere from moments earlier had never existed.
She removed a handkerchief from inside her clothes and gently wiped the remaining blood from her fingertips.
When she raised her head again, her signature flawless smile had returned.
“You can completely transfer a wound, including any poison contained within it.
What a remarkable ability, Kiyohiko-kun.”
“It appears that keeping you at the Butterfly Mansion truly was the correct decision.”
She completely ignored Kiyohiko’s questions regarding her physical condition.
It was as though he had never asked them.
“Hey, don’t change the subject!
I’m asking you—”
“That has nothing to do with you, Demon-san”
Although her tone remained gentle, it contained a distant coldness that firmly kept others away.
She turned her back to Kiyohiko and straightened the sleeve of her training uniform.
“Everyone has their own way of fighting and a mission they must accomplish.
As for the condition of my body…”
She glanced slightly over her shoulder, showing Kiyohiko a profile whose expression he could not clearly see.
“I am both a doctor and a Hashira.
I understand perfectly well what I am doing.”
“I do not need a demon to teach me how to value my own life.”
With that, she walked toward the dojo doors, her footsteps light but resolute.
“Today’s examination is over.
Since your hand is injured, you should rest properly.”
“After all… that poison is apparently difficult for even a demon to endure.”
Although her words still carried thorns, Kiyohiko keenly noticed that she was not nearly as calm as she pretended to be.
He narrowed his eyes and watched Shinobu walk away.
The wound continued sizzling and tearing itself apart, but he behaved as though nothing were wrong.
“Tch.
What an awkward woman.”
To prevent the wisteria poison from spreading farther up his arm, Kiyohiko expressionlessly dug the fingers of his left hand into his right palm.
He forcibly tore out the blackened, smoking chunk of rotten flesh that reeked of poison and tossed it onto the floor.
“Hiss—haah… That’s some powerful stuff.”
Without the poison obstructing his regeneration, bright-red flesh rapidly twisted and knitted itself together.
Within only a few breaths, his right hand had completely recovered.
The price, however, was that the sensation of his empty stomach grinding against itself immediately surged into his head.
If he did not eat something, his rationality would probably snap again within the next few days.
…
The midday sun was a deadly poison to demons.
Although the corridors of the Butterfly Mansion were protected by overhanging roofs, sunlight covered almost the entire courtyard at this hour.
Even the reflected light entering the walkway made Kiyohiko’s skin sting.
As a result, an extremely peculiar sight appeared within the Butterfly Mansion.
A young man crawled through the shadows along the corridor ceiling on all fours, his body inverted like a gigantic human gecko.
“So hungry… Meat… Blood… Or something high in protein…”
He continued muttering while following the aroma of food through the air until he reached the kitchen.
Inside, Aoi Kanzaki wore an apron as she directed the three little girls of the Butterfly Mansion—Kiyo Terauchi, Sumi Nakahara, and Naho Takada—in preparing lunch.
“Naho, make sure that fish is thoroughly cooked!
And someone finish cutting the daikon over there!”
Aoi wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Just then, a shadow descended from the ceiling.
Kiyohiko hung upside down, his pale face stopping less than ten centimeters from the tip of Aoi’s nose.
“Yo, Blueberry.
Is there anything raw for lunch?
Something bloody would be best.”
“WAAAAAAAAH!!”
Aoi was so startled that the ladle flew from her hand.
She leaped backward and knocked over an entire basket of vegetables.
Once she realized it was the ill-mannered demon she had met earlier, her terror instantly transformed into fury.
“You demon!
Stop appearing from the ceiling like some kind of insect!”
“And how many times do I have to tell you?!
My name isn’t Blueberry!
It’s Aoi Kanzaki!”
“A—O—I!
KAN—ZA—KI!”
She practically screamed the final syllables directly into Kiyohiko’s ear.
Picking up the fallen ladle, she pointed it at him as though defending the kitchen from a wild animal trying to steal food.
“This kitchen prepares meals for patients!
There’s no raw meat for you, and certainly no blood!”
“If you want to eat, we only have cooked fish and daikon miso soup!”
Kiyohiko flipped down from the ceiling and landed inside the shadow cast by the stove, disappointment covering his face.
“Tch.
How stingy…”
“Then give me ten fish.
You don’t need to remove the organs.
A little bloodiness will make them tolerable.”
Despite his complaints, he obediently accepted a plate of partially prepared fish that Aoi handed him and began stuffing them into his mouth.
As the food entered his stomach, the burning hunger finally eased slightly.
Aoi continued grumbling as she reorganized the scattered ingredients.
Kiyohiko crunched through a fishbone before speaking in a seemingly casual tone.
“Hey, Blueberry.
Let me ask you something.”
He swallowed what was in his mouth, his expression becoming somewhat more serious.
“Has your Lady Shinobu… always been like that?”