Demon Slayer: My breathing technique went awry after Nezuko pushed me down.

"You understand?"

Tanjiro hesitated for a long time before finally squeezing out through gritted teeth, "...I understand."

"That's more like it. A wise person knows when to yield."

Shirakawa Yu turned around with satisfaction.

Tanjiro followed behind, dejected...

But the more he thought about it, the more something seemed off.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that my senior brother had an emotional problem.

"Senior brother, who exactly is in Asakusa?"

Bai Chuanyu: "...!"

The sudden question startled Shirakawa Yu.

Before he could react, Tanjiro continued.

“Every time you mention ‘Asakusa Castle,’ your expression changes a little, and your demeanor changes.”

Bai Chuanyu kept walking, but his heart skipped a beat.

This kid... has a keen sense of smell and is quite observant.

"Are you hiding something from me?"

Tanjiro glanced at him sideways. "You don't... have a girlfriend or something there, do you?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Shirakawa Yu denied it outright.

"Then why does your tone always sound strange when you mention Asakusa Castle?"

"..."

Looking back at Tanjiro, Shirakawa Yu could only feign a helpless expression.

"Okay, actually I have other purposes too."

"You have a keen sense of smell, right? I just wanted to take you with me on this mission; maybe you can help me out."

Tanjiro glanced at him (￢_￢), "Really?"

"Really!" Shirakawa Yu said with utmost sincerity.

Suck~

Tanjiro cursed.

My senior brother smells like he's lying.

but......

Fine, since my senior doesn't want to talk about it, I won't ask.

It's probably a romantic entanglement they don't want anyone to know about!

"I see~" Tanjiro said with a touch of acting. "Brother, if you wanted my help, you could have just said so~"

"Hehe..." Bai Chuanyu chuckled twice, skipping over the topic.

He can't exactly tell the truth—say that he knows there's the ultimate boss, Muzan, in Asakusa Castle.

He's just afraid!

What if I happen to run into Muzan and he uses me as a minion to kill me?

After all, it's his rare bloodline, and he's a member of the Demon Slayer Corps.

Even if Muzan is currently in a state of lurking, he might not necessarily let me go if we really encounter him.

With his current strength, plus the boosts from Nezuko and Makomo, he's probably at the same level as Daki Komei.

Against Muzan, this would barely last three moves.

Run, maybe you can escape.

Even if he managed to create an opening and administer a blood transfusion.

He turned into a ghost.

Then all my plans would have to be disrupted and started all over again.

No, no, no, that's really not safe.

He still preferred to keep Tanjiro by his side, so he could witness the famous scene of their first meeting.

When Muzan saw Tanjiro, who had the same red hair, red eyes, scars, and sun-ring flower paper earrings as his "father" Yoriichi Tsugikuni.

In the crowded streets, Tanjiro saw through the disguise that had gone unnoticed for hundreds of years at a glance.

His first reaction as the overall boss was...

She turned around and used the child in her arms as a shield.

Retreat, using your wife as a hostage.

Then they would strike covertly, creating chaos.

He made a graceful and composed escape!

Afterwards, the more I thought about it, the angrier I got, so I killed a few henchmen to calm myself down.

He didn't dare to approach them directly, so he only dared to send his underlings to test the waters.

Good heavens... How could I miss such a beautiful, strong, and cowardly scene?

He even wanted to teach Tanjiro that the first thing he should say when he sees Muzan is something else entirely.

"What do you take life for?!"

Perhaps he really will witness Muzan's performance on the spot, escaping through a cellular-level self-destruction.

but......

Let's just think about it and move on. Jokes aside, Muzan is genuinely a coward.

But he might not actually be so cowardly as to not even test a child who is a successor of the will, and just self-destruct on the spot.

If things go too far, and he actually makes a move, even if it's just a casual test.

With Tanjiro's current strength, he would be dead on the spot.

Therefore, scaring it away is already the best outcome; there's really no need to force it to take action.

Is Shirakawa Yu a coward? A little.

But it's prudent!

There's no need to take risks.

But I still have to go to Asakusa.

Besides the task itself,

Shirakawa Yu's main intention is to make contact with them.

That beautiful young woman who broke free from Muzan's control and transformed herself so that she could survive simply by drinking blood.

Ms. Tamayo, a near-perfect oni (demon) medical scientist.

She is an extremely important part of Shirakawa Yu's future plans.

Chapter 33, First Mission: The Lost Girl!

In the afternoon, the two finally arrived at the town where Tanjiro's mission was located.

The timing was perfect.

As if by fate, not long after they entered the town, they overheard people talking by the roadside:

"Did you hear? Another one went missing last night!"

"Is that the girl named Riko? Sigh... how many is this now?"

"Fifteen! In half a month, one a day, fifteen were lost!"

"What a tragedy!"

Tanjiro's nose twitched immediately.

He leaned close to Shirakawa Yu's ear and whispered, "Senior brother, there's a ghostly smell. It's faint, but... very fresh. It must have been left over from last night."

"Can it be tracked?"

"I'll give it a try."

Then Shirakawa Yu saw a scene that made his lips twitch—

Tanjiro, his usually serious junior brother, suddenly collapsed to the ground.

Seriously, lie down.

With its limbs on the ground and nose close to the earth, it crawled forward like a search and rescue dog, sniffing as it went.

The surrounding townspeople cast strange glances at them.

Let me tell you... isn't there a more respectable way?!

Shirakawa Yu quickly took two steps back, pretending not to recognize the person.

However, Tanjiro kept sniffing and ended up sniffing all the way back to his feet.

"Senior brother, move aside, you're blocking my way."

Senior brother?

Are these two outsiders together?

They're so strange.

The gazes of those around them clearly conveyed this message.

He noticed the strange looks from the people around him.