After escorting the captive villagers to safety, Horne commandeered the desecrated shrine as a temporary base of operations.
“Fuck!
This place reeks like a slaughterhouse, and everything is coated in sticky gunk.”
Horne spat in disgust.
“Then why doesn’t Mr.
Demon step outside into the fresh air?”
Shinobu was still fuming over the groping.
“The sun’s already up.
Stepping out there means getting torched…
Then again, who knows?
Maybe I can evolve past the sun too.”
Seeing Horne genuinely contemplating walking into the sunlight, Shinobu quickly corrected herself.
“I suppose…
despite the smell, this place is quite spacious.”
It was hard to tell whether she worried he would burn to ash or feared he would actually conquer the sun—probably a bit of both.
Ultimately, both hunkered down inside the shrine.
Shinobu, who was supposed to leave after the extermination, stayed behind under the excuse of “clinical observation.”
“So, what does Mr.
Demon plan to do next?”
Shinobu was deeply curious about what a rogue demon like Horne would pursue.
“Reconstruct my biology.
I know of another demon who escaped Muzan’s grip and altered her anatomy so she only requires small transfusions of human blood to survive, without needing to devour living people.”
For Horne, eating demons didn’t quell the biological starvation wired into his cells.
The predatory demon instinct demanding human flesh had to be resolved permanently.
“Oh?
That’s news to me.
How do you plan to achieve that?”
Horne’s reply took her completely off guard.
“No clue.”
“My, how surprising.
I thought Mr.
Demon knew everything.”
“I’m not omniscient.
I know plenty of secrets, but I don’t hold all the answers of the universe.”
In truth, without the parallel processing power of two brains and the cognitive enhancement of his Stand, Horne wouldn’t even remember this much detail.
“Doesn’t matter.
Having devoured that demon, I’ve got plenty of demon blood sloshing in my veins.
I can experiment through trial and error.”
For a demon, modifying physical structure required consuming demon blood.
Healing wounds burned blood, regenerating lost limbs burned blood, and casting Blood Demon Arts burned blood.
There were only three ways to replenish demon blood: receive it from Muzan, eat humans, or cannibalize demons like Horne did.
The first was a death wish.
If you dared ask Muzan for blood, on the off chance he was in an extraordinarily generous mood, he might spare a drop—but 99.99999% of the time, he would slaughter you on the spot for insolence.
Thus, barring freaks like Horne, every demon relied on eating humans to maintain their reserves.
Whether it was growing stronger or severing his cannibalistic cravings, Horne needed to hunt demons—and hunt them in industrial quantities.
Only then could he amass enough blood to reshape his body without touching a single human life.
Horne found a clean corner free of suspicious stains and sat down cross-legged.
He recalled the sensation of deploying the bone blades during combat.
While encased in [Army into One], his conscious control over his physical form reached an absolute peak.
Bones and muscle tissue proliferated, morphed, and aligned according to his will—though once dismissed, his flesh reverted to its baseline state.
Now, he needed to replicate that mastery natively, without relying on his Stand.
He mobilized the vast reservoir of medical, anatomical, and biological data freshly committed to memory in the other world.
Burning enormous spiritual energy, he began dissecting and understanding the intricate mechanics of human and demonic biology.
Thankfully, Horne’s dual-brain setup granted him supercomputer-tier processing power; an ordinary mortal mind would have fried attempting to comprehend such advanced science in one sitting.
Even his physical body resting in the JoJo universe had to lie flat, recalling all manifestations of [One-Man Army] to free up processing bandwidth and focus entirely on the task.
By midday, running both brains at redline caused the core body temperature across both vessels to spike past 104°F (40°C).
For the demon vessel, a mild fever was irrelevant, but his mortal human body was overheating dangerously.
Stacking demon physiology would drain additional mental focus, forcing his human body to submerge entirely in Jotaro’s cold bath to stay chilled.
It wasn’t until dusk that Horne managed to digest roughly a third of the medical knowledge—a testament to the terrifying complexity of high-tier biology.
Noticing Horne deep in meditation, Shinobu had refrained from disturbing him, stepping out to treat the villagers’ ailments instead.
As the Insect Hashira heading the Butterfly Mansion’s medical division, her clinical skills were peerless.
By the time the sun dipped below the mountains, Horne finally stood up.
He tested his internal systems, directing his cellular structure with focused intent.
Shhhk!
A pair of jagged bone blades sliced through the flesh and skin of his forearms, extending outward with lethal gleam.
With a thought, the bone blades retracted smoothly, only to sprout from his palms and snap back inside again.
Next, he altered his entire skeletal density and muscle fiber alignment.
His frame expanded rapidly, his height soaring to a towering six-foot-seven, his torso rippling with chiseled, marble-hard musculature.
Heart lacking the output to pump blood through this mass?
Enlarge and reinforce the cardiac chambers.
Lungs failing to oxygenate the expanded tissue?
Mutate the alveoli for hyper-efficiency.
Capillaries rupturing under the surging blood pressure?
Thicken the arterial walls and reinforce vascular elasticity!
Every internal organ evolved in perfect harmony to support his upgraded physique.
Yet unlike ordinary demons whose mutations resulted in grotesque, distorted monstrosities, Horne retained his striking, handsome features—the absolute victory of medical science.
His face remained chiseled and rugged, yet possessed an irresistible, dangerous allure.
Beyond the raw physical presence, his masculine aura thickened significantly.
Horne even took the liberty of cranking his body’s natural pheromone production to eleven.
To any woman nearby, he had effectively transformed into a walking, breathing human aphrodisiac, dripping with raw, primal sexual tension.
Horne looked down at his clothes, stretched to their absolute breaking point by his surging mass, ready to tear apart with the slightest movement.
He stripped down completely, tossing aside even his briefs.
His original underwear simply couldn’t contain the monstrous proportions of his demonic iron club and heavy, swollen balls.
When Shinobu stepped back into the shrine and laid eyes on Horne, her cheeks flushed crimson.
As a physician accustomed to treating male patients, she should have remained indifferent to nudity, yet her heart raced uncontrollably in her chest.
Her subconscious mind wasn’t registering Horne as a patient—it was processing him purely as an overwhelmingly dominant, intoxicating male.
“Mr.
Demon!
What on earth do you think you’re doing?!”
Shinobu demanded, trying to mask her fluster.
“You really only think about yourself, don’t you?
You’re the one ogling my naked body.
I haven’t even complained, yet you’re already interrogating me.”
Horne countered without a shred of shame.
“I—”
Stunned by his brazen audacity, Shinobu found herself at a loss for words.
“Relax, I’m a generous guy.
If you want to stare, be my guest.
I don’t mind.
In fact, let me show you a neat little trick: the Magic Extending Staff!!”
Horne’s massive cock lived up to the name, shifting and morphing directly according to his conscious command.
It lengthened, shortened, swelled thicker, slimmed down, curved at sharp angles, sprouted rows of textured, ribbed pleasure beads along the shaft, and began buzzing with steady, rapid vibrations.
Heh~ a miraculous biological toy like this would drive any woman out of her goddamn mind!
“Pretty neat, isn’t it?”
Shinobu’s face burned crimson as her irritation flared right back up.
“Neat?!
What part of that disgusting monstrosity is neat?!!”
“Want to take it for a spin?
I’m feeling generous—feel free to use it however you like.”
“Not interested!
You truly are…
the most shameless bastard alive!!”
Shinobu gritted her teeth in pure exasperation, completely dumbfounded by this utterly brazen, thick-skinned maniac.