"Hmph! Hmph! As long as I kill you, that lord will give me more blood."
The man with a full beard shook his head, his neck creaking. In his orange-yellow eyes, two big characters were extremely eye-catching, Lower Rank Two.
"You don't seem afraid of me at all?"
Rokuro looked curiously at the old man in front of him, whose hair had long turned white and gray.
The old man was draped in a gray coat, his eyes already clouded from the erosion of time, his face full of wrinkles, his figure hunched. He looked like half of his body was already buried in the earth, but oddly gave off a spirited and energetic feeling.
Upon hearing this, he made a low sound and said clearly, "I don't fear humans, so why would I fear you ghosts?"
"Really not afraid?"
The old man's calm demeanor made Rokuro a little irritated. He pretended to be fierce, leaned close to the old man's ear, and said, "I'll eat you, you know."
The old man smiled without speaking. When he saw Rokuro becoming irritable, he finally said slowly, "Seems like ghosts are rather cute, at least they'll give a warning before eating me."
"When humans eat people, they do it with a smile, swallowing you up without you even realizing it."
The sneer at the corner of the old man's mouth made Rokuro furious.
"Hmph! You old bastard, I'll send you down right now!"
His sharp fingertips turned into a blur like a whip and slashed toward the old man's neck.
This half-rotted old thing, Rokuro had no appetite to eat someone like that anyway.
"Mr. Evil Ghost, abusing the elderly is not good, you know~"
A clear and pleasant voice came, accompanied by a flash of icy light, a blood mark suddenly appeared on Rokuro's wrist.
His eyes widened in shock. That almost invisible wound rapidly expanded under his gaze, and soon, his palm and arm were completely separated.
Pfft~
Fresh blood spurted out.
The sudden change made Rokuro retreat at once, already drenched in cold sweat. How fast, he hadn't noticed the other's arrival at all.
In a blink, his hand had been cut off. 'This kind of strength...'
Looking at the smiling girl in front of him, Rokuro's throat bobbed.
'A Hashira! It has to be a Hashira!'
Rokuro felt like he couldn't breathe anymore. In an instant, he turned and bolted for the exit. This is how Lower Moons survive.
But Shinobu's petite body descended from the sky and stomped on his back. Rokuro stumbled and fell to the ground. Shinobu's weight wasn't enough to knock him off balance.
Looking at his rotting arm, he cried out in alarm, "Poison!"
"That's right~" Shinobu cheerfully jumped down from him and said gently, "The poison will soon spread throughout your body. Do you feel weak?"
"You filthy bitch! Why are you here?! Don't you care about the evil ghost over there?!" Rokuro cursed furiously.
"There's Jotaro-san over there, so I don't need to worry." Shinobu smiled.
Unlike Jotaro, who inquired about the evil ghost's movements, she directly asked downstairs about Takakura Toshio's whereabouts.
The students didn't know that name, but they did know the famous Professor Nagashima.
She thought for a moment and figured he must have changed his name. When she found that he wasn't in this building at all, she realized this could be a trick to lure them away.
Since Jotaro was there, that demon wouldn't make much of a wave, so she came ahead to find Takakura Toshio. And indeed, things were just as she had expected.
Looking at the struggling evil ghost on the ground, Shinobu kindly reminded him, "That'll only make it more painful for you."
"Who the hell would listen to you?! Bitch!"
Rokuro bared his teeth, leapt up fiercely, and shouted, "Blood Demon Ar... ugh, ugh..."
A mouthful of blood sprayed out. He glanced sideways at the girl beside him, only to see a Nichirin Blade shimmering with cold light already stabbed into his body.
"A solid blade isn't good for ripple transmission, but the poison flowing through it can become an excellent conductor."
As she spoke, golden light erupted from her hand. The ripple surged, following the poison on the blade and poured into Rokuro's body.
"What is this?! No! Stop!!"
Fear made his teeth chatter. But soon, the golden ripple completely engulfed him.
Watching the demon turn to ashes, Shinobu withdrew her blade into its sheath and exhaled softly. Previously, she could defeat Lower Rank demons, but never as easily as now.
She still had to thank Jotaro-san. If not for him...
Thinking of how that platinum hand had touched her private area, a flush rose on Shinobu's cheeks.
The Ripple energy suited her well. Because of her use of poison, the presence of a blade didn't hinder the Ripple; instead, it made its flow even more unpredictable.
Her strengths had been preserved and a new killing move had been added, definitely a major power-up. She had regained her confidence because of it.
"Yare yare…" Looking around, Jotaro could roughly guess what had happened.
Originally, he'd planned to capture the demon to gather useful intel. But now it was clearly too late.
His gaze shifted to the old man coughing and staggering beside him.
Ensuring Takakura Toshio's safety was enough. He walked up to Takakura, his eyes cold and his voice low, "Over thirty years ago, before Takakura Ken was born, he killed your wife. Why did you falsify the autopsy report and hide this?"
After many days of investigation, with his high intelligence, he had basically reconstructed that long-forgotten case. But some things he still couldn't understand.
Shinobu, having heard Jotaro's reasoning, also looked furious and angrily said, "You knew he was a demon, so why?"
"Demon?" The wrinkles at the corner of the old man's eyes trembled. He interrupted Shinobu in a deep voice.
"At first, I did think he was a demon. A nine-month fetus, with fully developed bones and teeth, even killed my beloved wife. Fear, anger, resentment... I wanted to kill him at the time."
"But..."
His cloudy eyes softened, and he murmured, "In my arms, he was like any newborn, he knew nothing, only cried."
"Born different, was that his fault? Later I discovered that killing his mother wasn't his intention."
"His growth rate wasn't normal. He had already learned to breathe in the womb. Just the nutrients from the mother's body weren't enough to sustain him. So to survive, he came out early. He didn't even know that was his mother."
With a faint smile, he said, "Rather than call him a demon, it's more accurate to call him a beast, one who kills just to survive."
Shinobu clearly couldn't accept this, clenching her teeth as she said coldly, "A beast couldn't kill with such cruelty."
The scene beneath the stone chamber was still vivid in her mind. The young girls who had died, their ruined bodies, in an instant, veins bulged on her forehead.
Jotaro placed a hand on her shoulder, signaling her to calm down.
The old man seemed to sense her fury and sighed, "He was once just a beast, but wanted to become human."
"He did kill my wife. But in the end, he was still my child. Out of guilt toward my wife, I didn't raise him. I abandoned him, left him to live or die on his own."
"Who knew he didn't die in the wild, he survived. I only found out later. He got into Tokyo University. Even after more than a decade, I recognized him from his eyes. He was no longer the beast from before. He was polite, refined, already a proper human being."
Shinobu's voice turned icy, "So you helped a killer."
"No." The old man sighed deeply. "We just took over a certain research project together."
Jotaro frowned and was about to speak, but Shinobu's thoughts had shifted. She sneered as soon as he finished, "No? He's your son. You knew he killed people, why didn't you expose him? How is that any different from helping him kill?"
The old man laughed coldly, a mocking look in his cloudy eyes. "Why should I expose him? So many people kill, I don't want to care anymore."
"Beasts kill out of hunger. Humans can kill for no reason at all. Sometimes, being killed quickly is a kind of mercy."
Shinobu clenched her teeth, burning with rage at his disregard for life. The girl's body was already trembling.
"Yare yare…"
Jotaro removed his hand and stepped forward. Looking down at the old man, he asked, "Can you tell me what research project Takakura Ken was working on?"
The old man glanced at him and asked, "Where is he?"
Jotaro looked into his eyes and replied in a flat voice, "He's dead. I killed him."
The old man showed no sorrow. Instead, he suddenly smiled and said, "Good. From your eyes, I can tell, he died painlessly."
Jotaro didn't reply, but it was true. Though he'd punched Takakura many times, it all happened in an instant. So fast, he probably didn't even feel pain.
The old man hunched even more, pointed to a nearby desk, and said tiredly, "Everything's in there."
Jotaro quickly walked over. Star Platinum broke the lock. He pulled out a file and a set of keys.
It contained the research location and project details. He skimmed it quickly and stored everything away.
"Hey! What are you doing!" Shinobu yelled.
The old man had pulled out a gun, loaded it, and pointed it at his own temple.
Though she believed he was deeply guilty, seeing him take his life in front of her still left her uneasy.
The old man smiled and said, "Living is hard. But dying peacefully isn't easy either. In the end, I still have to do it myself."
Bang!
The bullet pierced his temple. The old man collapsed into a pool of blood.
Shinobu opened her mouth, speechless.
Jotaro walked over, gave the old man a deep look, and calmly said, "In your eyes, the world might still be beautiful, but in his, it had already changed."
"Let's go." He turned, hands in his pockets, eyes closed, walking away with confident steps.
Shinobu's eyes were complicated. She sighed softly. Just as she was about to leave, an explosion suddenly roared like thunder.
The entire lab began to shake.
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