Muzan: My daughter can't be that weak!

The two boys hadn't even managed to utter a terrified "no."

Below the pale blue flower in front of them, several winding vines began to move.

One of the thicker main vines was gracefully split in two.

One branch nimbly wrapped around the thin body of the little yellow dog on the ground, while another quickly darted out and instantly bound Yang Tai and the boy in blue together.

They felt a force tightly binding their limbs, and were so terrified that they forgot to struggle, leaving only gasps coming from their throats.

Yukina stood up quietly, her eerie red eyes lowered slightly as she gazed at the vines connecting the puppy and the boy.

Then she saw it.

It wasn't a wound, it wasn't blood, it wasn't a pained expression.

Instead, they are delicate threads woven from time.

The threads were wrapped around the puppy, marking the injuries caused by being hit by a stone, kicked, having its tail cut off, bleeding, and pain...

Each one was like a knot, tightening the puppy's lifeline and making it fragile and on the verge of breaking.

And on Yangtai and the boy in blue, the lines extending out connect to the starting points of these knots:

Pick up a stone, throw it forcefully, kick it, grab a pair of scissors...

Beyond these lines lies the cause of their malice.

Xue Nai stretched out her other small hand and gently placed her fingertips on the main branch of the dark blue vine.

She gently tugged at it.

The vine that was wrapped around the little yellow dog suddenly shone with a bright blue light, brushing against the knots on the dog's body.

In the instant the light swept across, the knots marked with harm and pain vanished.

Meanwhile, the vine that had been wrapped around the two boys pasted the knots that had just been removed from the puppy onto the line connecting them.

Time, within this region, has been subtly altered.

The chain of time has been awkwardly grafted together.

"Ughh ...

"My legs! My back! It hurts so much—!!!"

The screams of Yota and the boy in blue erupted, even more piercing than before.

Because this time it really hurt.

Yang Tai's left leg twisted and broke at the exact same angle, and several deep lacerations that exposed bone appeared out of nowhere on the blue-clothed boy's back, with blood gushing out.

What they are suffering right now is the harm they themselves have caused.

And that little yellow dog...

It blinked blankly. Its body, which had been on the verge of death just moments before, was now still thin, but all its injuries had disappeared.

It stood up and shook its head.

"Awooo..."

The air was filled with the fresh smell of human blood.

The smell entered Xue Nai's nostrils.

"Well……"

Her bloodshot eyes became confused.

The blue spider lily on my fingertip seemed to sense something, spinning silently and emitting an even more eerie halo.

eat……

She was so hungry...

The smell of blood...it smells so good...

His already limited rationality quickly dissipated.

The primal craving for flesh and blood, mixed with the emptiness she felt from using the Blood Demon Art, instantly overwhelmed her.

Her gaze slowly swept over the two boys curled up and groaning on the ground, then swept over the boy who was embedded in the wall not far away and had already fainted from fright.

Muzan stood quietly in the shadows, taking in all of Yukina's changes.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, showing no intention of stopping him.

Putting aside the fact that this idiot's Blood Demon Art manifested in the form of a blue spider lily...

Just in terms of ability...

It was far better than he had initially anticipated.

It seems that giving her so much of his own blood wasn't entirely a waste.

The pale blue spider lily on Yukina's fingertip responded to her longing, gently detaching from her fingertip and slowly floating into the air.

It started to grow bigger.

The petals unfurled, rapidly expanding from the size of a fingertip to the size of a bowl, then a washbasin…

The deep blue light grew more solid, illuminating half of the dim alley.

At the center of the petals, where the stamens are originally delicate, a subtle attraction emanates.

The enlarged blue flower, like a living predator, drifted toward Yota and the boy in blue who were writhing in pain on the ground.

"No...no...help..."

Yang Tai vaguely saw the enormous flower getting closer and closer, and his remaining consciousness made him utter a weak plea for mercy.

The boy in blue also opened his eyes wide in horror as the beautiful yet terrifying flower enveloped him.

The deep blue petals gently closed.

It completely enveloped the two boys.

Then it floated over to the thin, unconscious boy by the wall and enveloped him as well.

An extremely faint hissing sound came from the three closed flower buds.

The petals became a deeper, more eerie color.

A moment later.

Three enormous blue buds, silently and as gently as when they bloomed, unfurled anew.

All that remained inside were fragments of clothing.

The blue spider lily phantoms that enveloped them shrank slowly as if completing their mission, floated back to Yukina's side, circled her twice, and then merged into her body.

The feeling of hunger subsided as quickly as the tide receded.

Xue Nai's body went limp, and she collapsed to the ground.

Her eyes gradually returned to their original clear red color.

The eerie lines on his face faded and disappeared beneath his skin, while the bluish-black hair at the ends slowly shrank back to its original length and color.

She paused for a moment, shook her head, touched her head, and stood up, the night wind ruffling her clothes.

What just happened?

Yukina blinked, slowly turned her head, and looked at the spots on the ground where people had just been.

It's empty there now.

The moonlight shone on the rough stone slabs, where only a few pieces of dark-colored rags were gently swaying in the night breeze.

There was still a lingering smell in the air...

She knew it was the smell of blood, but it didn't seem as strong as before; much of it had been dispersed by the wind.

Was it me... who made them disappear?

Xue Nai lowered her head and looked at her outstretched little hands.

The memories in her mind told her that it was these hands that had made the blue flower bloom.

That blue flower...

Thinking of that flower, Yukina frowned in confusion.

That flower is so beautiful, a deep blue, like a cluster of tiny, glowing stars.

It emerged from my fingertips, light and airy, as if it had no weight.

But... why are her fingers blooming?

Fingers aren't dirt.

The flowers in the yard all grow from the soil; they need watering and sunshine.

And... that flower looks very familiar...

Yukina tried hard to search through her hazy memories.

She remembered; she had seen it in her father's book.

It was blue, with pointed petals, and looked exactly like the one that had just floated out of her hand.

Dad seems to really like that book; he often stares at the picture of the flower for a long time.

But why did the flowers her father found come out from her fingertips?

Could it be... that flower was secretly hidden inside her body?

Like a seed?

But she had never eaten flower seeds either...

My mind is a mess, like a ball of yarn that a kitten has played with, and I just can't get it out of my head.

Yukina shook her head, trying to shake off those thoughts she couldn't understand.