Chapter 156: Countdown
The second floor of the Kyogoku House.
Daki finished smashing every last object that could be smashed.
The room was a complete disaster.
The vases were shattered to pieces, the pillows plucked bare, and the mirror cracked.
She dropped to the floor, clutching her head in her hands.
"It’s over, it’s over, it’s over..."
"Don’t lose your head." Gyūtarō was still in the corner.
Even though he said that to calm her down, his eyes never left the clock on the wall.
"There’s still time. It hasn’t gotten dark yet."
"What good does it do that it isn’t dark?! That damn man still hasn’t shown up!!"
Daki dug her nails into her palms in frustration.
"..."
Gyūtarō just stared at the light seeping in behind the curtains, his throat tight.
’If only I were human right now...’
He’d run out, comb through all of Asakusa, and drag Marcus back.
’But I’m a demon...’
That enormous sun blazing outside was his prison.
"We’ll send someone else to keep watch."
He pulled the curtain all the way shut.
"Have them wait at the gate of his mansion, and the second he gets back, they report to us immediately."
Gritting her teeth, Daki got to her feet and ran to the door to scream at the top of her lungs:
"YARITE!!"
....
"It’s biting~!"
On the outskirts of Asakusa, the river ran smooth and crystal clear.
Nezuko was crouched on a big rock by the bank.
She gripped the little fishing rod with both hands and the gravity of a seasoned professional, not taking her eyes off the bobber for a single second.
Marcus, beside her, was sprawled out with a straw hat over his face, dozing peacefully.
"Marcus, it moved~ it moved!"
Nezuko dropped her voice and leaned forward, so tense that she even curled her toes.
Lifting his hat a little, Marcus looked.
"That’s the current."
"Ah..."
Nezuko pouted and went right back to holding perfectly still in her spot.
A while later.
"Marcus! It moved again, it moved~!"
Marcus looked again.
"That’s the wind."
"Wuu..."
Nezuko’s little face scrunched up in disappointment, but she kept watching the bobber anyway, without making the slightest movement.
And then, a few minutes later, the bobber went under all at once.
Nezuko leapt to her feet.
"Ahhhhh!!!"
She yanked the rod with everything she had.
A crucian carp the size of her palm came flying out, tail thrashing in the sunlight, baptizing her face with cold water.
"A fish!! Hahahaha!!"
Holding the fishing rod up high, Nezuko started hopping all along the bank with a smile too big for her face.
Watching the fish writhe in the air, Marcus couldn’t help laughing.
"Nezuko’s the best. Get it in the bucket quick, don’t let it get away."
"Yes, yes, yes!"
Unhooking the fish with the utmost care, Nezuko dropped it into the bucket. Then she put another worm on the hook and went back to her lookout position.
At the sound of the fish’s tail slapping around inside the bucket, Nezuko’s smile stretched to its absolute limit.
She stole a glance at Marcus’s rod.
His bobber wasn’t moving in the slightest.
Then she looked back at her own bucket.
Already got one!
"Heheheh~"
...
Kyogoku House.
Daki lay slumped over the vanity, her forehead resting against the mirror’s frame.
She had already put every single person in the brothel who could still move on the hunt for Marcus.
She had even detached pieces of her sashes and sent them slithering underground through Yoshiwara, weaving between the different buildings.
And yet, there was no news.
The sun was sinking little by little, and with it, her heart kept dropping.
"Onii-chan... I feel like I’m going to die."
Gyūtarō was still on the floor, though beside her now, toying with his sickle. "You’re a demon. You can’t die."
"I’m talking about tonight!"
"And what good does it do you to get like this? He isn’t yours to control."
Daki whipped her head around and glared at him.
"How can you be in the mood to joke around right now?!"
"And what do you want me to do?" Gyūtarō rolled his eyes. "Sit here quietly and wait to die?"
"..."
Daki had no idea what to say back.
She buried her head in her arms again and muttered, her voice smothered. "If I could at least go outside..."
Two hours until the sun went down.
Two hours!
If she dared set one foot outside, the sun would turn her to ash.
"Agh, what a pain!! And it makes me so furious! Not before, not after — he has to go out right now, right this exact second!"
"AAAHHHH!!!"
...
"Hahaha!"
Cheerful laughter rang out along the riverbank.
Nezuko tossed fish number thirteen into the bucket, planted her hands on her hips triumphantly, and gave Marcus a radiant smile.
Marcus’s bucket... empty.
Not a single fish.
Marcus wasn’t sleeping anymore. In fact, he couldn’t sleep anymore.
He looked at his bobber, as still as a corpse. Then he looked at the fish flopping around in Nezuko’s bucket.
"Did you spit in my side of the water?"
"Of course NOT!"
Nezuko covered her mouth, but the mischievous little giggle escaped through her fingers.
"Marcus~ dummy~~ the fish~~ don’t like you~~"
Marcus raised an eyebrow.
"Dummy?"
He set the rod aside and turned toward her with a smile that promised nothing good.
Nezuko sensed the danger instantly, and before she could wipe the smile off her face, she backed up a few steps.
"What...?"
Too late. Marcus moved like lightning and caught her up in his arms.
"Hahahaha!!! No! No tickling! Marcus~~ nooooo! HAHAHAHA!"
Nezuko squirmed with laughter until she was doubled over, and the fishing rod slipped right out of her hands.
Marcus held her and lay back down on the rock, satisfied.
"Who’s the dummy?"
"Marcus~ smart! The smartest~~ smartest~~ smartest~~!"
Nezuko was laughing so hard there were tears in her eyes, begging for mercy as fast as her mouth could go.
"And the fish...?"
"HAHAHA~~ Marcus~~ caught~~ every single one~~"
Marcus nodded. "Good girl..."
...
Kyogoku House
The clock kept ticking forward.
Daki chewed on her nails until she had almost none left.
"One hour left."
Gyūtarō’s voice turned deadly serious.
And then Daki asked the question she’d been holding back.
"Onii-chan... if he doesn’t come before it gets dark... do we run, or...?"
"There’s no running."
Gyūtarō rose to his feet, gripping his sickle tightly.
"If Muzan wants to find a demon, there’s nowhere in this world to hide."
Daki’s lips trembled, but she said nothing more.
The room sank into absolute silence.
...
On the outskirts of Asakusa, on the main road.
The setting sun washed the entire mountain path in a reddish orange.
The Sound Hashira, Tengen, ran at the head of the group.
Behind him, the three boys followed, breathing hard, not a drop of air left in their lungs.
"All right, take a little rest."
Tengen’s idea of a "rest" was going from running to walking extremely fast.
But fine. Something was better than nothing.
The Hashira moved at a criminal speed, and just keeping up with him had already been a near-death experience for the three of them.
They walked like that for a good while, catching their breath little by little.
Tanjiro looked at the figure ahead of him and, after turning it over a thousand times, finally worked up the nerve to speak. "Uzui-san, I wanted to ask... why did you decide to come to Yoshiwara right now?"
"Didn’t we agree before that we’d give my senpai a month?"
Tengen raised an eyebrow and glanced at him sideways.
"You know about that?"
But after saying it, he nodded to himself.
"Ah, right. You’re the Demon Hashira’s little brother. It’d be stranger if you didn’t know."
Tanjiro pressed on. "So why did you come now?"
Tengen stretched without breaking his stride.
"Your senpai hasn’t made a single move in the past two weeks."
"There’s a little over a week until the general assault, and before that we have to confirm whether the Upper Moon is still holed up in there, don’t you think?"
He raised a finger and wagged it.
"This trip of mine is purely reconnaissance. I’m not going to show myself."
"According to the information Hakuji gave us, a demon would immediately recognize the strength of someone at Hashira level."
"On the other hand, they have a lot of trouble detecting ordinary slayers who haven’t reached that level yet... like you three."
He clapped Tanjiro on the shoulder hard enough to nearly knock him to the ground.
"Originally I was planning to send my wives to infiltrate Yoshiwara, but I ran into you three at just the right moment, so you’re saving me the trouble."
Tanjiro rubbed his shoulder and suddenly stopped dead.
"... Wives?"
Tengen nodded matter-of-factly.
"That’s right. I have three wives."
Behind them.
Zenitsu’s jaw hit the floor.
"THREE?! Did he say three?! THREE?!"
His voice climbed higher and higher like a kettle coming to a boil.
"Three wives?! THREE?! Seriously?! THREE?!"
He stared at Tengen, every single feature on his face completely distorted.
"You get three wives all to yourself?! Why?! By what right?!"
"I don’t have a single one!! And you have three?! Where is the justice in this world?!"
’Here we go again...’
Inosuke turned away in disgust.
"Why are you yelling? It’s totally normal! Even the boars on my mountain have lots of wives!"
Zenitsu whipped his head around toward him.
"THOSE ARE BOARS! B-O-A-R-S! Not people! You think it’s normal to compare humanity to a boar?! THERE IS NOTHING NORMAL ABOUT THIS!!"
"Come on, Zenitsu, let it go..."
Tanjiro spoke in a flat tone that even carried a faint air of melancholy.
"My senpai... has even more..."
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Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎
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