Under the cover of night, Akihiro sprinted down through the forest.
He learned from Yamibari's memories that the town ahead was called Ishibashi Town, which was much more prosperous than the town at the foot of the mountain where Akihiro used to live.
He wanted to find Tanjiro, but Akihiro didn't know where he was. He needed to go to Ishibashi Town to gather some information, confirm his location, and then go to the old town to look for Tanjiro.
Akihiro stopped by a bright stream reflecting the moonlight.
He lowered his head, slowly directing his gaze to the clear, mirror-like surface of the stream.
Akihiro was very unwilling to see a hideous, fierce demon face.
"Whew, good."
Akihiro breathed a sigh of relief after seeing his current appearance.
The face reflected in the stream still looked roughly the same as before, only his complexion was a sickly pale, appearing somewhat frail and eerie.
But when Akihiro opened his mouth, he could see a mouth full of sharp fangs.
"These fangs should be controllable, right?"
His fingernails, with a mere thought, could become as sharp as blades, yet they could also return to their original state at will.
Fangs, too, should be controllable.
Focusing his consciousness on his fangs, Akihiro tried to retract them.
After a while, the full set of fangs slowly changed shape, becoming flat, smooth teeth. However, two fangs were difficult to change completely; they only became smaller and shorter, then remained stubbornly firm in Akihiro's mouth, unwilling to change further.
"Alright, they look a bit like cute little fangs, quite nice actually. I'll keep you."
Originally, Akihiro had thought about smashing them to see if he could control their regeneration, but after seeing their shape, he found them acceptable, so he decided to keep them.
He glanced with mild disdain at his dusty and blood-stained clothes and body, then Akihiro directly performed a fish leap, jumping into the small stream. The clear stream immediately became turbid and murky.
A few small fish fry vaguely floated to the surface, belly-up. Akihiro awkwardly scratched his head.
"My bad, I didn't realize I was so dirty right now."
He sincerely apologized to the little fish, then Akihiro submerged his head in the stream, feeling the cool water flowing around him.
"There seems to be a relatively large pool beneath this stream."
"Let's go there. This stream is too shallow; it's boring."
The water here only reached Akihiro's chest, and the sides were a bit narrow, less than two meters wide. Although it was enough for bathing, Akihiro wanted to fully unleash the vitality of his body in the water, and this wasn't enough.
Currently, he always felt an endless supply of strength, an overflowing energy with nowhere to release it.
Yamibari had given him considerable power, but Akihiro still needed some time to digest it and make it his own.
Submerging himself without surfacing, Akihiro quickly swam towards the pool from Yamibari's memories. He loved the feeling of being completely submerged in water; it allowed him to temporarily forget all his troubles.
Occasionally, he surfaced to take a few breaths. After about ten minutes, Akihiro swam to the pool.
"Yamibari, do you have some misunderstanding about what a pool is?"
"Hahaha, this is clearly a lake!"
Akihiro looked out, the lake surface shimmering, with a few large fish occasionally leaping, as if searching for a non-existent dragon gate.
Akihiro laughed heartily and entered the lake from the tributary.
He dove into the lake, stopping only when he reached a depth of about ten meters.
A large carp, over a meter long, slowly swam past Akihiro. Akihiro, feeling playful, mischievously tugged its tail, scaring the carp into a furious whip of its tail, then it swam frantically forward, headfirst.
From that night onwards, Akihiro laughed wholeheartedly for the first time.
The water pressure at ten meters depth was not weak, but the mountainous pressure and responsibility on his shoulders now seemed to have lifted, leaving Akihiro feeling incredibly light.
"Let's see who's faster."
Akihiro suddenly accelerated in the water. The demon's physique was indeed powerful; he shot towards the large carp like an arrow released from a bowstring.
The large carp sensed danger, lost its direction in panic, and then quickly swam towards the surface of the lake.
Akihiro chased behind: "Don't run, come play with me!"
The distance between them grew smaller and smaller. Akihiro reached out, just a knuckle's length away from grabbing the fish's tail, but the large carp suddenly flicked its tail again, launching itself out of the lake.
It turned out that Akihiro and the large carp had reached the surface of the lake during their chase.
Although the large carp had leaped, Akihiro's speed was even greater. After leaping out of the lake, Akihiro caught the large carp in mid-air.
"Got you!"
But before he could splash back into the water, Akihiro suddenly felt a breeze. This breeze gently circled his neck, then suddenly rose, shearing off a lock of his sideburns.
"Huh? What's with this wind?"
Akihiro looked up and saw a graceful, butterfly-like figure, bathed in moonlight, looking down at him from above.
In a daze, facing the bright moon, Akihiro seemed to see vast swathes of sacred light.
The next second, Akihiro's face was suddenly struck hard, kicked back into the water by that figure. The large carp also slipped from his grasp, swimming back into the depths of the lake in a panic, vowing to swim even deeper.
"Hiss, it's a woman, and she's not wearing clothes... How did this happen to me? This is going to be trouble."
Because he was kicked into the water, Akihiro choked upon landing and quickly surfaced, feeling uncomfortable.
At this moment, on the same water surface, a pair of very peculiar eyes met Akihiro's.
People in this world had peculiar eye and hair colors, but Akihiro swore these were the most peculiar and beautiful eyes he had ever seen.
On her delicate face, her eyes were a gradient purple from bottom to top. At the most intense part of the purple, there was an invisible dividing line, and above the dividing line, it was grayish-white.
These two-colored eyes, in Akihiro's perception, were incredibly beautiful and captivating.
"If you keep looking, I'll gouge out your eyes, you know."
Akihiro was somewhat captivated; even her voice was incredibly gentle.
But what did she just say?
Akihiro subconsciously asked, "Huh?"
Then he felt a pain in his eye, as if someone had poked it with a finger, but it wasn't very serious.
"Ow, ow, ow! I heard you. I won't look anymore."
Akihiro quickly covered his eyes and turned away. He also realized he had made a mistake; he had apparently been staring at the young lady with a perverted gaze for a while.
Although Akihiro swore he was only attracted by those beautiful eyes and didn't look anywhere else.
But the moonlight was bright, and the lake was clear, with a milky-white, delicate figure faintly visible beneath the water...
Who would believe him?
Shinobu's hand, holding her Nichirin Blade, was behind her back, trembling slightly.
She was now somewhat embarrassed and angry, wanting to cut Akihiro down with a single strike.
However, she didn't sense any definite demonic aura on him, so Shinobu couldn't possibly attack an innocent ordinary person.
"Hmph, don't move, alright? Don't think about running away, and don't think about turning your head to peek. I'll settle accounts with you later."
At this point, Akihiro had already sensed danger. That breeze... sent shivers down his spine.
He was now facing away, truly daring not to move: "Yes..."
Shinobu leaped gracefully, stirring up only a few drops of water. Her delicate white toes lightly touched the lake surface, and with a few leaps, she landed on a tree by the bank.
Aside from her Nichirin Blade, which she carried even while bathing, her clothes and hair ornaments were placed on the tree.
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