Chapter 147 Snow
"It seems I haven't seen it in the past two days..."
In the dry forest, an owl that was dozing off and flapping its wings suddenly shuddered. The whole bird instantly woke up and looked towards the thin figure not far away that was constantly soaring among the dead trees like a mountain ape.
The night two days ago came to my mind.
That night, after successfully finding food in the kitchen, it happily flew to the wisteria tree to relax for a while.
But before it could stand firm, there was a sound of breaking wind, and the man who was said to be its master suddenly appeared beside it, which scared it. However, the man seemed not to see it and said something to the girl under the tree.
After saying goodbye to the girl under the tree, the other party turned around and wanted to wave his strange arm device to fly away again. At this moment, the man and the bird looked at each other on the tree.
The next second, the owl's vision was dizzy, and when he could see clearly again, the other party was holding him in front of him and looking at him with a calm gaze.
"…Your presence is very low. If the Demon Slayer Corps has any information about Kizuki or Yoriichi in the future, please continue to tell me."
The owl, who wanted to refuse, felt the force restraining his body and the other party's cold gaze. Under the other party's tyranny, he had to nod frantically.
"…very good."
After the other party murmured something with satisfaction, the owl was thrown aside casually. Looking at the man's back as he flew away swinging the rope, the owl flapped its wings angrily, but in the end it still obediently flew towards the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.
Back to the present, the wolf, which had left the Butterfly House two days ago, had arrived at a forest hundreds of kilometers away with its superb mobility.
Along the way, he encountered many lurking evil spirits. The wolf killed them at will and obtained five Buddhist beads and a gourd seed. This was one of the reasons why the wolf left alone. Acting alone could allow him to collect all the prayer beads and gourd seeds as quickly as possible.
goo.
At this moment, a voice sounded. The wolf was thought to be a little hungry because of two days and two nights of running around and killing evil spirits. He stopped swinging the hook with his left arm and landed steadily in the pile of dead leaves.
Take a break...
Just when he was about to look for prey, another cooing sound came from behind him. The wolf then reacted and looked back. Sure enough, it was an owl standing on the treetop behind him, calling at him.
Seeing that the wolf noticed it, the owl flew down from the treetop, landed on the wolf's shoulder, and stretched out its leg to show the wolf the note tied to it.
He took the note and looked at the contents.
When chatting with the Sound Pillar's Crow, I heard him say that there might be an upper-rank demon hidden in Yoshiwara Flower Street, and that there have been many murders of mountain people in the past two days, but the bodies did not show any signs of being devoured, which seemed to be the work of a demon.
The wolf kept the above information in mind, but then he noticed the strange person at the beginning and asked the owl who was dozing off beside him.
"Who wrote this note for you?"
Hearing the sound, the owl, who had perked up, reacted for a moment, then stretched out its wings and pointed at itself. Then, fearing that the wolf would not believe it, it jumped off the wolf's shoulder, picked up a branch, and quickly wrote a line of words on the ground:
I want to eat.
Looking at the words on the ground that were clearly written in the same font as the one on the note, the wolf's opinion of the owl slightly increased, and then he said to the owl.
"Hold on."
After saying that, he swung out the grappling hook and disappeared from the sight of the owl. He quickly shuttled through the forest full of fallen leaves and soon found a wild boar with a mouth full of fangs.
In mid-air, the wolf swung his arm, and the mechanism of his prosthetic hand rotated to bring out the shuriken, aiming at the running wild boar and swung it hard.
puff.
The sound of the shuriken sinking into flesh was heard, and the wild boar, feeling the pain, went crazy instantly, struggling wildly for a while before rushing forward.
The wolf remained calm and followed slowly along the blood trail. However, it had not gone far when the faint smell of blood suddenly became stronger, and the subtle change made the wolf frown.
It's human blood...
The wolf no longer slowed down after smelling the strong smell of human blood. Its footsteps stirred up large pieces of fallen leaves. By the time the flying leaves fell, the wolf's figure had disappeared from the spot.
Next to a quiet wooden house in the mountains, a wild boar covered in blood fell down helplessly, but next to him, several figures fell on the cold ground, and the blood that had begun to dry gathered under them.
There was a sound of breaking wind, and a wolf with a serious face appeared beside the few people. He squatted down and touched the bloodstains on the ground, feeling how dry they were. The wolf quickly determined the time of death of the few people.
Two days ago...
The contents of the owl note just now appeared in Wolf's mind. It seems that it was done by the same murderer. And since so many mountain households were killed in just a few days, the murderer must be an evil ghost without a doubt.
Thinking of this, the wolf pondered in his heart.
If the opponent is not fast at this distance or kills someone again in the middle, I can still catch up, but if the evil ghost changes direction in the middle, I am afraid it will be difficult to find him...
However, compared to Yoshiwara, whom he had never heard of, he would naturally not let go of the clue in front of him.
Thinking of this, Kushimaru drew his sword, swung it with his knife and cut off one of the wild boar's hind legs, then cut off a large piece of meat from it and put it among the items he was holding.
He glanced at the Yamato family lying in a pool of blood. There was no time to bury them. After hesitating for a moment, the wolf faced the other party and bowed his head slightly, holding the knife with one hand and clasping it together.
He threw out the grappling hook and left the place, then blew the whistle to call the owl, and fed the impatient owl a piece of hind leg meat that he had just cut.
Seeing the other person's happy look, the wolf was distracted for a moment, because the last time he ate, there were many people around him...
Touching his heart which was feeling strange and sour, the wolf was trying to figure out what this feeling was, but at this moment, he felt a slight chill on the back of his neck.
The wolf, whose thoughts were interrupted, looked up at the sky, and countless ice crystals and snowflakes fell from the pale sky.
Raising his hand to catch a snowflake, feeling the coolness on his hand, the wolf turned his head to look in the direction where the evil ghost was moving, muttering something.
“…it’s snowing…”