Muzan: My daughter can't be that weak!

"puff."

Douma suddenly smiled, the smile spreading from the depths of his eyes.

He held the music box up to his eyes, tilted his head to examine the grotesque doll, poked its nose with his finger, then poked its protruding tongue, poked it once, shook it once, poked it once, shook it again.

"This is fun!"

"This is much more interesting than last year's!"

He held the music box in his hands, turning it over and over to examine it.

The ghost face was still hanging there, dangling around, and he didn't press it back down, just letting it hang there.

"Oh my, what a special gift—" He suddenly leaned close to Yukina, grinning broadly. "I can't wait to show it off to everyone."

As he spoke, his colorful eyes darted around, his gaze slowly moving from Xue Nai's face to the cloth bag in her hand, then back to her face, and then back to the cloth bag.

Xue Nai cautiously hid the bag behind her back.

"I wonder what gifts the other demons received," Doma tilted his head, his tone light and airy, as if he were talking to some little demon. "I'm so curious—if anyone could tell me..."

"Uncle Doma," Yukina took a step back, looking serious, "there's no one in the Infinity Castle, it's full of ghosts."

She smiled and said, "So just be curious."

Doma blinked, seemingly surprised that she would say that, and vaguely felt that this art of finding loopholes in conversation was very familiar.

However, he didn't care about any of that.

The next second, Douma suddenly reached out and swiftly grabbed the bag behind Yukina.

"Hey—you cheated!" Yukina was startled and quickly hid to the side.

"Fine, I'll cheat then!" Douma laughed even harder, stretching out his hand as he said, "What is it? Let me see—"

He moved quickly, but Xue Nai was just as fast, dodging left and right while holding the cloth bag.

The two ghosts circled the corridor twice before Douma, quick as lightning, grabbed the opening of the bag.

"Gotcha!"

"Uncle Doma!"

Yukina held onto the bag tightly, refusing to let go, while Douma didn't pull hard, just smilingly held on.

"Little Yukina is the best! Let me see her, just one look—"

"You just stole my things!"

"That's because Yukina won't let me see it—"

"Then you still can't steal it!"

Just then, a figure happened to pass by on the platform above.

Akaza was planning to return to his residence in Infinite Castle, but before he had taken more than a few steps, he heard that voice from below that was giving him a headache.

He paused, his brows furrowed, and almost without hesitation, turned to leave.

"Oh dear—it's been a long time, Lord Akaza!"

Doma below had already spotted him, and with a smile, he looked up and said in a cheeky tone, "Did you come all this way just to say hello? That's so touching, isn't it~"

"roll."

Doma isn't the kind of demon who'll just roll when told to.

In front of Yukina, he slowly and deliberately put the mechanism back on the music box, and with a "click," the ghost face obediently shrank back into the box.

Then, with a swift movement, he jumped onto the platform and approached Akaza with a smile.

"Lord Akaza, would you like to try this?"

"roll."

"This is really interesting." Douma held the music box up to him, his tone light and cheerful, like a salesperson. "And it was a gift from Yukina~"

Akaza was about to punch the strange thing to pieces, his fist already raised, when he heard the second half of the sentence, and his movement abruptly stopped in mid-air.

His gaze shifted from the music box and swept downwards.

Down in the corridor, a child was holding a cloth bag, looking up at them nervously with wide, round red eyes.

Akaza frowned again.

He has no penchant for bullying little girls.

Just because we can't fight this thing doesn't mean we can't fight other things.

He threw a punch.

"Whoosh—" A gust of wind from a punch grazed Doma's cheek, lifting a strand of white oak hair.

Doma squinted, a comfortable expression on his face: "Is Akaza-sama fanning me? How gentle~"

Akaza's face darkened.

Provocation, blatant provocation.

Tolerable or unbearable.

"The spell unfolds."

Blue array patterns spread out from beneath his feet, and the air suddenly became heavy.

Doma, standing to the side, clicked his tongue in admiration: "Wow, it seems Lord Akaza has gotten a tiny bit stronger again—"

"roll."

Yukina stared at the two figures engaged in a passionate encounter above her, silently took a step back, then hugged her bag tightly and quietly slipped away around the corner of the corridor.

The gift from Uncle Doma is now his.

Besides, she has a lot of money, and that music box isn't exactly priceless, so it's fine if it's broken.

Let's hurry up and leave. Once they're done fighting, Uncle Doma will definitely be eager to see what's in the bag again.

Xue Nai, clutching the bag, jogged along.

Finally, she went into Kokushibo's room, sat at the table, took out the gifts from the cloth bag, and then put them back.

"Teacher, when are you going back to Infinite City?"

The reply came quickly, the voice calm and steady, "...Is there something you need?"

"Nothing much," Yukina rested her chin on the edge of the table, tapping the cover of a book on the table with her finger, "It's just that I haven't seen you in so long, and I miss you terribly."

Kokushibo stood in the courtyard of the human mansion, gazing at the hazy sky in the distance.

A few flowers bloomed in the yard, and the petals were blown down by the wind, rolled twice on the bluestone slab, and came to a stop.

He was silent for a moment.

If he remembered correctly, the last time he saw this child was about four days ago...

Forget it...

Whatever she says goes.

As a teacher, I should be more lenient with my students.

"I'm not coming back for the time being." He paused, as if considering his words.

Before any reply came, he continued, "However, you can have Nakime... teleport you... to... me..."

……

Meanwhile, Doma noticed that Yukina had secretly run away, but he was having fun with Akaza, so he didn't chase after her.

"Aren't you curious about this, sir?" He shook the music box in his hand, smiling as he leaned closer. "It's really interesting—"

Akaza remained silent as the force of his punch whistled past.

He avoided the music box and gave Doma's head a good beating. Having vented his anger, he didn't intend to waste any more time there and turned to leave.

But Douma certainly wouldn't give up so easily.

He might not show it to others if they want to, but if Akaza doesn't want to see it, then he has to show it to him.

While Akaza was turning around, Doma shoved the music box into Akaza's hand.

Akaza reacted as if he had received a hot potato, abruptly pulling his hand away, almost dropping the music box.

He instinctively reached for it, his fingers slipping on the smooth wooden box a few times. In his haste, he pressed the button with a "click".

The music is ringing.

A small wooden panel on the front of the music box also popped open, and the ghost face doll jumped out from inside.