Yae stared blankly at this scene, her eyes becoming hollow, as if she had lost the will to live. She collapsed heavily onto the ground, turned the gun around, and pressed the muzzle against her chin.
"This girl, what is she trying to do..."
Jotaro instantly appeared at her side and blocked the trigger with his hand.
Yae, overwhelmed by sadness, actually let out a strange laugh. She tried to push away Jotaro's hand, but her strength couldn't move him at all.
She roared, "Father, everyone is dead! Even Taro died because of me... someone like me, you should just leave me alone!"
Jotaro's face darkened. He removed his hand from the trigger and stepped to the side, really no longer interfering with this girl.
Yae stared blankly at him.
'I must be really hated right now. He clearly meant well, but I treated him so roughly. That hesitation earlier almost got Taro killed too. He must hate me now as well. Someone like me might as well just die.'
At that moment, filled with the desire to die, she pulled the trigger.
But just before the gun fired, in the very last second, the muzzle was suddenly shifted by a strong force.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed across the sky, and Yae stared at the gun in her hand in confusion. What just happened?
"Perhaps this is your father telling you, live on."
Jotaro's deep voice came, and tears surged from Yae's eyes as she hugged the hunting rifle to her chest.
'That force appeared out of nowhere. Could it really have been father? Father's soul is still here!'
With the crisis resolved, the bloodhound Taro came over wagging his tail and panting, and jumped straight into Yae's arms.
Yae was dazed for a moment, then tightly embraced him. A smile finally appeared on her face.
"You've forgiven me, haven't you? Taro!"
Yae's appearance was not much inferior to Shinobu. At this moment, the gloom on her face had completely cleared, revealing a smile like a plum blossom blooming in a snowy landscape, stunningly beautiful.
Jotaro turned around. Knowing she had lost her will to die, he could now rest easy.
Just as he was about to take a step and leave, Yae suddenly spoke, "Th-thank you!"
She stood up from the ground holding Taro, her beautiful eyes fixed on Jotaro's back.
"The gun… it was you who moved it, right? That time too, there was an invisible force that knocked father away."
"Though I don't know how you did it… but, you're like that girl, also a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. You know things beyond what I understand… Anyway, thank you." Yae bowed deeply to Jotaro.
"Who knows." Leaving those words behind, Jotaro didn't even turn his head, hands in his pockets, walking away.
Watching Jotaro's figure merge with the dark night, Yae hugged Taro and murmured softly, "Idiot, bullets can't kill demons, right..."
———
Late at night, the wind was getting sharper and colder like blades, and even the light snowflakes hitting the face felt painful.
Jotaro walked alone, calmly descending the mountain. His tall, strong figure remained upright in the wind and snow.
He wasn't worried about Yae, because she would follow this same path back. Going ahead could even help avoid unnecessary trouble.
With weather like this, even real grizzly bears probably wouldn't take a single step out of their caves.
The girl's situation was already resolved, but Jotaro's uneasy feeling hadn't lessened at all.
It was strange. That annoying woman was more worried about Yae's safety than he was. Why hadn't she shown up yet?
'Could she be lost?'
The dark of night and the swirling snow really do affect a person's sense of direction.
But for a swordsman trained to fight demons even in the harshest conditions, such minor trouble shouldn't be an obstacle.
"…"
Jotaro raised his head, eyes full of gravity, staring into the darkness in the distance.
In front of him appeared the system's panel. As he understood it, only he could see this mysterious interface, others couldn't detect it.
What it displayed was a random mission issued by the system.
The mission was to kill a demon named Takakura Ken.
Different from last time's mission to protect the Kamado family, this time the mission clearly required him to take the initiative.
With Jotaro's personality, he wouldn't let the system lead him by the nose.
Among so many demons, to specifically find and kill one particular target... The key was, this demon had nothing to do with him. Even if there was a reward for completing the mission, Jotaro wouldn't bother doing such a foolish thing.
To find someone, a name alone wasn't enough, so the system also provided detailed information about Takakura Ken.
After reading Takakura Ken's background, even if the system withdrew the mission, Jotaro would still seek out this demon and destroy him.
No doubt, this person was evil, utterly evil. So evil that even Yoshikage Kira would pale in comparison.
In 1885, in Nara Prefecture, Kansai, a mother nine months pregnant died from massive blood loss because the fetus in her womb destroyed her vital organs.
A nine-month-old fetus capable of killing, such a thing was simply unimaginable.
After all, a fetus inside a womb has extremely soft bones and no teeth. In that condition, to be able to kill an adult from the inside?
To be honest, Jotaro didn't believe it at first.
But in this world, there were already beings born with extraordinary abilities. Even demons existed, so a fetus with awareness and teeth wasn't too surprising.
Despite how horrifying this case was, it caused no stir in Japanese society. In fact, almost no one even knew about it.
This devil-like fetus was not destroyed, but grew into an adult. As he grew, his instinct for slaughter became stronger.
Over the span of thirty years, from Kansai to Kanto, a total of one hundred murder cases occurred. Those one hundred cases were like a devil's coming-of-age journey.
All the victims had two things in common, they were all women, and their corpses were found missing their uterus.
The only difference was, the killer's technique for removing the uterus became more and more precise.
This blood-soaked history already made Jotaro take him seriously, but what really got his attention was this, seven years ago, the Japanese police finally tracked the suspect's movements.
But just before the arrest was carried out, the suspect mysteriously disappeared.
Jotaro frowned as he looked at the last line of text.
Of course the killer didn't vanish into thin air, he became a demon, and the one who turned him into a demon was none other than Muzan Kibutsuji.
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