"Sigh…"
A sudden sigh drifted over.
Alarm bells clanged in the demon's head. He instinctively looked back—somehow, without him noticing, the boy wearing sun-pattern Hanafuda earrings had appeared behind him and was now sitting squarely on his back.
"Mind letting him go?"
"My little brother's a bit dumb but kind-hearted. If you strangle him to death, he won't be very fresh to eat, will he?"
When did he get there? Why didn't I sense a thing? Dohihara was shocked.
In life he'd been a cook; years in kitchens had made his sense of smell keener than most. After he was turned into a demon in Taishō Year Two, that sense had been further heightened. He could track prey by human scent and even read the routes people would take to flee by the aura leaking off their bodies.
But tonight, his nose had failed him.
"You—there's not a whiff of you. Are you even human?!" Dohihara slashed for Roy with a taloned hand.
The gust skimmed Roy's face; he could smell the nauseating blood reek on those claws. Roy slipped to the side, slid along Dohihara's arm into his armpit, grabbed Tanjiro by the collar, and hauled him up off the floor.
"Cough—cough—" Saved in an instant, Tanjiro clutched his throat and gulped air. His face had gone blue; ashamed, he didn't dare meet Roy's eyes.
Useless… Still had to be saved by Nii-san in the end… Tanjiro, when are you going to get stronger?
Roy toed up the axe from the ground, pretended not to notice the boy's dejection, shoved the axe back into his hands, and said, "Continue."
"Ah?" Tanjiro was still dazed when a kick caught him on the rear and sent him charging at Dohihara again.
"The fight you asked for—you finish it."
Roy's voice echoed through the quiet shrine behind Tanjiro—harsh in Dohihara's ears.
The demon wasn't stupid. To "cultivate" this mountain beside Mt. Sagiri for years took cunning. From the earlier exchange he'd already judged the axe-wielding hothead wasn't the threat; the one behind him was.
He focused ninety percent of his attention on Roy, flashed forward over Tanjiro's head, and raked for Roy.
Whsst— Roy slid sideways and let the strike pass. Dohihara twisted in midair, snapped a side kick around—the foot was practically stamped on Roy's face—
—and Roy simply bent back, dropping under it.
Damn it—I can't track how he's dodging!
"Why… why don't you have a scent?"
He couldn't make sense of it. Two misses in a row—he slipped past the furious chop Tanjiro swung from behind, hopped back several times, and opened distance from the Kamado brothers.
Zetsu: tighten and cut off all aura and scent, minimizing your presence.
Working from Zigg's notes, Roy used visualization to "seal" all his aura nodes, cutting off the channels by which his aura—and thus his scent—leaked outward. No wonder Dohihara couldn't smell him.
"Yeah… Nii-san, I can't smell you either…" Tanjiro, keen-nosed as ever, edged back to Roy, sniffed carefully, and soon caught the oddity.
No—that's not it. Nii-san still has a scent; it's just much fainter…
Dog-nose indeed.
Tanjiro was right: Roy hadn't truly learned Zetsu. He wasn't Gon, who'd grown up in nature, naturally knew how to hide his presence, and—after Wing's coaching and Hisoka's pressure—quickly mastered Zetsu, truly "cutting himself off from nature, standing alone."
Instead, inspired by the "water-walking" trick, Roy had a brainstorm: he thinned the aura coating the soles of his feet into a membrane and temporarily wrapped it over his aura nodes, plugging the leak of aura to the skin.
The downside was obvious—the membrane lay on the skin, exposed, and a faint wisp of aura still bled outward. But that wisp was easily smothered by blood-reek; without an exceptional nose, you wouldn't notice.
"Is now really the time to space out?
"Right side—"
Twin "Nen flames" lit in Roy's eyes. With Gyo, he caught Dohihara's next lunge. He yanked Tanjiro to the side—
Tanjiro slanted his body, used the opening, and whipped the axe rightward!
Steel carved the night, a cold arc slashing the wind and snow, straight for Dohihara's belly—
Rrrip— Blood fountained; intestines spilled.
Dohihara screamed, tumbled back, landed, and glared murderously at Roy. Damn it—if I don't take that one out, I'll never get a chance. Am I really going to give up this "dojo"?
To be a god—why shouldn't a demon have a hall if gods have shrines? He'd heard the supreme one kept a lavish dojo—the "Infinity Castle"—where space bent to his whim.
So unless he had no choice, he would never abandon this shrine. It was his cafeteria, the root of his survival. He hated moving house; he hated wandering even more.
Which meant—fight.
His flesh knit. He drew a breath and grinned:
"That's the thing about humans—they're filthy. When danger comes, they shove the weak in front of them.
"Me? I used to be decent, until the boss pinned his mistakes on me. So I ate him."
"And you—" he jabbed a claw at Roy, sneering without restraint. "Hiding behind your baby brother—dare to fight me one-on-one?"
Uh… Did a demon just mock Nii-san? Tanjiro stole a sideways look.
Roy's face didn't change. Without a panel prompt telling him the fight would grant Combat Arts EXP, he had no reason to step in.
What's more—
Roy looked calmly at Dohihara and said seriously, "Don't judge people based on their appearance.
"My brother may look dumb—but in my eyes, he's very strong."
"Nii-san!" Tanjiro snapped the axe up, two streams of breath blasting from his nostrils like little dragons.