Chapter 178: STAB ME!!
"Master, you’ve arrived..."
Marcus was still planted in the doorway, smiling with guilt written on his face.
Urokodaki was being held back by Tanjiro. The old man had his body pitched forward, like a raging bull.
"Tanjiro! Don’t stop me! Today I’ll tear this scoundrel to pieces!"
Tanjiro’s face reddened with the effort, his hands gripping tight to his master’s waist and his feet plowing two furrows into the ground.
"Sensei! Please, calm down!"
"Yes, Master!" Marcus smiled. "Calm down—"
Swish!
Before he could finish speaking, a flash cut through the air and the blade grazed his ear.
Thud!
It lodged into the door, right behind him.
A shiver ran through Marcus from head to toe and he opened his eyes in disbelief.
He turned his head toward the dagger, still vibrating, and then looked at Urokodaki, who remained in the same stance.
"Master! You’re serious!!!"
Of course he wasn’t serious! Had he been serious, that throw would never have missed!
The thing is, the Water Breathing school always concealed a special skill that never came to light: dagger throwing. Both Tanjiro and Tomioka had mastered it to perfection.
Being the master of them both, how could he miss a completely motionless target?
But!
One may lose their patience—never their composure!
"Nonsense! If I stabbed myself, you think my hand will waver with you?!"
Marcus: "..."
That’s when he suddenly understood where the blood on the tip of the sword had come from.
He looked at Tanjiro with relief.
"See? What did I tell you? Good thing I sent you!"
Tanjiro clung to his master, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"My dear senpai! Couldn’t you take credit at a more opportune moment?!"
Marcus shrugged. "This is exactly the best moment. If I don’t make the master see that I always carry him right here, in my heart, how’s his anger going to cool down?"
"Isn’t that right, Master?"
The instant he said this, master and disciple were left utterly dumbfounded.
The words didn’t sound bad... but something didn’t add up.
"That’s true, sensei..." Tanjiro said, dazed. "In fact, Senpai was the first to ask me to go find you... that proves he always keeps you in mind."
"Keeps me in mind?!"
Urokodaki, once he’d processed the words, looked deeply offended.
"If he really kept me in mind, and had even a little bit of respect for me, he wouldn’t have turned into a demon without saying a single word to me, HIS SENSEI!"
"And much less would he have put me into some kind of vampire records to make a fool of me for all eternity!"
With that, he hunched over, lifted his foot, and the next instant...
Swish!
A straw sandal went flying at Marcus.
And this time with impeccable aim!
Straight to the face!
Marcus dodged in a hurry. But when he turned, Urokodaki was already there, standing, with one bare foot.
"Are you throwing your sandal at me?"
"What’s wrong with throwing my sandal at you?"
Urokodaki took off the other one and gripped it like a throwing knife.
Marcus sighed, helpless. ’Why is this old man acting like a little kid?’
"Master, first put your sandal on and let’s talk things over like civilized people..."
"Say whatever you want!"
"You made me the leader of the vampires. Did you consult me about anything?"
"Master, if I wrote it that way, it was to make your greatness shine..."
"Greatness? You call that greatness?!" Urokodaki was so furious his face went red.
"Me, teaching Water Breathing, and I end up as the guide of Breath of Desire?! I spend my whole life hunting demons, and now it turns out I’m the ancestor of the demon race?! Are you praising me or insulting me?!"
"Praising you, without a doubt!!!" Marcus said with utter seriousness.
"Think about it carefully: as the founder of the vampire lineage, I put your illustrious name on the first page so that future generations will revere you. Isn’t that a tribute to your greatness?"
Swish
The other sandal shot off too.
"I! DON’T! NEED! IT!"
"In that case!"
Marcus cast a glance backward: the dagger lodged in the door vibrated slightly and pulled itself free from the wood, floating along with the sandals until they hung suspended in front of Urokodaki.
He spread his arms wide open, with a firm, generous expression.
"Go ahead, do it! As long as it helps you vent, stab me as many times as you want!"
Urokodaki gazed at the floating dagger and sandals, feeling a brief emotional short-circuit.
After all, he’d only heard about this, but it was the first time he’d witnessed Marcus’s Blood Demon Art.
Behind him, Tanjiro’s weary shout rang out.
"Senpai, stop adding fuel to the fire, or Sensei’s really going to stab you!"
"Let him go, Tanjiro!"
Marcus displayed absolute determination. "Even if the Master kills me, I won’t so much as furrow my brow!"
Seeing him get swept up in the emotion, Tanjiro found his courage too.
In an extremely resolute manner, he let go.
"All right!"
"What?"
"Ha!" Urokodaki grabbed the sword and slipped his sandals on.
And he began to advance, with an icy smile, toward the stunned Marcus.
Marcus poked his head out from the side of Urokodaki’s shoulder. "Why did you let him go, Tanjiro?!"
Tanjiro blinked innocently. "Didn’t you tell me to let him go?"
No one could deny his cunning.
The moment he noticed that his master’s resentful aura no longer weighed so heavily, he was dying for him to take it out on Marcus for all the grief he put him through every single day.
Shrinking his neck, Marcus swallowed hard, staring at the gleaming blade in Urokodaki’s hands.
"Master... are you really going to stab me?"
"Didn’t you say you weren’t afraid? Didn’t you want me to get even?"
Seeing the fire-red tengu mask, Marcus clenched his teeth and shut his eyes.
"All right... but stab me nice and slow..."
Except he waited a good while and nothing happened.
He opened one eye and discovered that the dagger was still raised, but Urokodaki’s hand was trembling.
In an instant his face lit up.
"Heh. Well then, Master? Not going to go for it?"
"Shut up." Urokodaki clenched his teeth. "I’m thinking about where to stab you."
"If you can’t come up with a spot, wouldn’t it be better to leave the stabbing for another day?"
"Are you going to keep being a smart-aleck?"
Marcus clamped his mouth shut.
And right at that moment, a little hand reached out from one side and tugged at Urokodaki’s pants.
Urokodaki lowered his gaze.
Nezuko had come out of the house at some point, and was now looking up at him with her little face raised. A pair of big pink eyes, gleaming beneath the sunlight, blinked with enormous tenderness.
"Grandpa~~!"
Urokodaki froze for a second, and his first impulse was to plant himself in front of Nezuko to shield her from the sun.
Nezuko pulled a candy out of her pocket, unwrapped it, stood on her tiptoes, and brought it up to his mouth.
"Eat the candy~!"
Seeing that Nezuko showed not the slightest discomfort under the sun...
Urokodaki was dumbfounded.
"Nezuko? You..."
Before he could take it in, Tanjiro, who was dying to reunite with his sister, threw himself into hugging her. Tears streamed out in floods and his voice cracked with emotion.
"Nezuko! You can talk now! AAAAAAH!! Call me onii-chan! Say it once, onii-chan!"
Nezuko was squeezed tight in his arms. One little hand held the candy; the other wrapped around Tanjiro’s neck.
"Onii-chan~"
"Waaaaah!!"
Tanjiro burst into even louder sobbing, snot and tears running down his face, clinging to Nezuko, refusing to let her go.
"Did you hear that?! Did you hear it, sensei?! Nezuko can call me ’onii-chan’ now!"
Urokodaki gazed at the scene, and the hand holding the dagger gradually lowered. He looked at Nezuko, lingering on those clear eyes and the sweet smile surfacing on her lips.
"This child... she was cured?"
This time Marcus didn’t separate the siblings; he merely looked at them with a smile.
"Cured. Now she doesn’t just talk: on top of that, she’s taking more and more of a liking to soaking up the sun."
"Hmph! At least you did one good deed!"
Urokodaki shot him a glare and then crouched down to be at Nezuko’s level.
Nezuko kept insistently offering him the candy, her little hand steady, frozen an inch away from him.
"Grandpa~~~ Eat the candy."
Urokodaki looked at her for a couple of seconds, then lifted his mask, revealing that kindly old face.
He opened his mouth and popped in the candy.
"Is it good?" Nezuko asked.
"...Yes."
The moment he said it, Urokodaki realized what he’d just said and his face went red.
He straightened up, tucked the sword into his belt, and shot a murderous look at the smiling Marcus.
"What are you looking at? I’m indulging Nezuko, not you."
"Yes, yes, of course, whatever you say. As long as it cools the old man’s temper down..."
Tanjiro was still hugging Nezuko, crying intensely.
Nezuko ended up half-suffocated by the force of the embrace and gave him a few pats on the head.
"Onii-chan, it hurts."
Tanjiro let go of her immediately, though he didn’t peel his eyes off his sister’s face.
"Nezuko, say something more. Call me onii-chan."
"Onii-chan."
"Say it again."
"Onii-chan."
"Again..."
"That’s enough." Urokodaki couldn’t stand to keep watching. "If the girl’s fine now, you’ll be able to hear her every day."
Tanjiro wiped his tears and smiled sheepishly.
Nezuko ran up to Urokodaki’s feet and looked up.
"Grandpa~ Don’t be angry~"
Urokodaki looked at her, a faint smile surfacing on his lips.
"Grandpa isn’t angry."
Nezuko tilted her head and stared fixedly at the sword in his belt.
Urokodaki’s face went red with embarrassment. "That was... to stretch a little."
Nezuko tilted her head again, not believing a word of it.
Even so, she didn’t press; instead, she pulled out another sweet and placed it in Urokodaki’s hand.
"Eat the candy~~ Don’t be angry~"
Urokodaki gazed at the treat in his palm and then looked at Nezuko’s serious little face.
"Who taught you this?"
"Huh?"
"Who taught you to say these things?"
Nezuko blinked and pointed her finger at Marcus.
"Marcus said~~ Grandpa~~ Soft heart~~ Give candy~~ Easy to calm down~~~"
"..."
The courtyard fell into absolute silence.
Urokodaki turned his head very slowly toward Marcus.
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