So Pitiful, Yet So Adorable
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The painter immediately realized his mistake, panic spreading across his face. “No, I… I expressed myself poorly!”
“My ‘love’ isn’t romantic love. I meant inspiration,” he hurriedly explained. “Whenever I see Ieiri, inspiration comes pouring out without pause! I want to paint him, to preserve that moment…”
As Arisaka Riku spoke, he happened to meet a pair of cold, scarlet serpent eyes.
The sensation of being watched sent a shiver through him. Then he froze for a moment. “Oh… oh…”
The sickly young painter was both terrified and spellbound, staring blankly.
In a small voice, he said, “…Fresh Snow and the Ink Snake? That is a wonderful combination.”
“The snake is wonderful too.”
“Beautiful fangs, a beautiful body! A cruel yet beautiful cold-blooded creature…”
The painter’s praise spilled out before he could stop it.
“…”
A scarlet forked tongue flicked into view.
[LOL, that unexpected compliment completely short-circuited the boss.]
[Boss: Keep talking. I like this.]
[Muzan’s arrogant and willful personality absolutely cannot tolerate defiance from the weak. Just look at Demon Slayer—the Lower Moons’ meeting nearly ended with their total annihilation.]
[Why “nearly”?]
[There were five Lower Moons in total. Only one survived.]
[Lower One, Enmu, survived entirely because his submissiveness and flattery came from the heart of a true pervert and hit Muzan right where it pleased him. Muzan not only spared him, but even gave him more blood.]
[Woohoo.]
[So the painter has really found himself a winning strategy, huh?!]
However, before that comment had even vanished, the painter spoke again.
“The skeleton is wonderful too. Pale bones wound in the aura of decaying death…”
“And the vivid crimson cross-sections of organs, the eyeballs growing from the tangled roots.”
His face flushed as he spoke. “The Ink Snake is simply too monotonous.”
“If only the ‘creature’ entwined with Ieiri could be changed at any time.”
Arisaka Riku raised a blissful smile. “After all, I have only one muse…”
As for the one entwined with Fresh Snow—
Whoever it was—
Arisaka Riku gave a nervous little laugh. “Anyone will do.” He was not particular about it being the same person.
“If one day Ieiri grows tired of the Ink Snake and wants to replace him, please be sure to notify me!”
He meant every word.
[Painter, I had just finished praising you, and then you went and committed a spectacular act of suicide.]
[Is this guy’s mental state… all right?]
[Probably not. Aren’t painters more sensitive than ordinary people to begin with? And he still has a tremendous amount of cursed energy left in his body. Cursed energy is, after all, essentially negative emotion.]
[He’s completely unhinged, but his feelings for Little Snow really are pure “love.”]
[So pure it’s become sinister…]
[Everyone, focus on Muzan—he’s raised his head again!]
[I’m laughing myself to death… Is Muzan doing sit-ups over there?]
[Is the painter the first person to openly “steal someone’s lover” right in front of Muzan?! Is that the right phrase? Hahaha! It feels strangely appropriate!]
[What he really means is: Hurry up and grow tired of the old favorite. Kick that snake out already.]
[So he’s Little Snow’s number-one obsessive fan?]
[Huh?!]
One outrage followed another, until even the last scrap of Muzan’s patience was exhausted. His heart seethed with malice.
That despicable human had actually dared to incite the shikigami user to betray him.
Muzan decided that he ought to grant the man the most agonizing death imaginable.
He would make him remain conscious as every bone in his body shattered, forcing him to savor the countdown to his own death.
The Ink Snake flicked its tongue and slowly loosened its coils around the boy, raising its upper body.
They did not separate completely. Ieiri Yuki could therefore feel the subtle contraction of the snake’s abdominal muscles where their bodies touched.
Moist, sticky, cold.
“Mm…”
For a blond boy who tolerated cold well but not heat, feeling a snake’s body gliding over him in the height of summer was almost enough to make him sigh with comfort.
In fact, a faint sound escaped him.
At that nearly inaudible moan, the body of the ink-black snake paused, and it instinctively looked over.
The two of them were far too close.
At that exact moment, Muzan happened to raise his upper body again. His long, slender tongue brushed past the underside of the blond boy’s jaw, almost touching the corner of his pale pink lips.
Only by the narrowest margin did it miss.
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…
He paused.
Cursed spirits had no sense of smell. The “scents” they perceived were all traces of cursed energy.
Sorcerers and ordinary people alike left behind traces entirely different in the eyes of cursed spirits.
If one had to compare it to something…
It was rather like pheromones.
The tip of his tongue touched the boy’s cheek, automatically taking in his pheromones and triggering the cursed spirit’s recognition of his “scent.”
The rich sweetness was also a flavor contained within the boy’s flesh and blood.
He had tasted it before—more than once.
But mixed into it…
Were other traces.
That human had been far too close to the blond boy just now. The residue of cursed energy drifting from his body had naturally stained Ieiri.
It was detestable.
In the next instant, the beautiful black-haired man materialized. The ends of his hair curled slightly, his face was unnaturally pale, and his long, straight lashes lowered as he fixed his gaze on the shikigami user.
Red-black residue of cursed energy spilled forth, wrapping around the blond boy before—
A monstrous fleshy arm burst from beneath his sleeve and surged toward the black-haired young man on the sickbed.
Muzan still found that painter intolerable.
However—
The moment he attacked, a circular dome of cursed energy seemed to appear in the air above the Gojo estate.
A pair of brilliant sky-blue Six Eyes, formed from solidified cursed energy, hung suspended in the air.
They seemed almost to possess a soul, immediately locking onto the direction of Muzan Kibutsuji.
Cursed energy coiled through the sky, unleashing a powerful crimson technique.
“Boom—!”
The two attacks collided head-on. The heavens shook and the earth trembled, while the surrounding area was instantly swallowed by blinding light.
Immediately afterward, shrill alarms rang throughout the entire Gojo estate, drilling into everyone’s ears.
“What happened?!”
“The alarm is sounding!”
“Another surprise attack by curse users?!”
That single exchange was enough to rouse everyone in the Gojo household.
Every member of the Gojo clan saw the Six Eyes, shaped from cursed energy, suspended above them.
Everyone knew that they were the protective barrier passed down by the ancestors of the Gojo clan.
At its core were cursed objects left behind after the deaths of Six Eyes users from previous generations.
[It’s true that sorcerers have a chance of becoming cursed tools after death, but cursed objects…?]
[Could those really be the Six Eyes?!]
[!!]
Whenever unfamiliar and dangerous cursed energy erupted within the area covered by the barrier, the barrier would automatically identify it as an enemy and launch a technique.
In an old estate not far away, the head of the Gojo family looked up. He resembled Satoru Gojo only slightly, but was dignified and scholarly.
“The last time I saw those eyes was twenty years ago!”
At that time, Satoru Gojo had yet to mature, and a staggering bounty had been posted for him on the dark web.
The curse users had united for the reward, but also to eliminate Satoru Gojo, the “sinner who had upset the balance between cursed spirits and sorcerers.”
First, they had lured the tiger away from the mountain. Then they had launched a feigned attack while secretly infiltrating the estate for a surprise strike.
The plan had been flawless. Unfortunately…
A single attack from the protective formation had annihilated ninety percent of the curse users present.
The stench of blood above the Gojo estate did not fade until a week later.
After that, Satoru Gojo’s enormous bounty remained posted on the dark web, but no one dared accept it.
A kimono-clad attendant with lowered eyes came around the corner at the end of the corridor. His pace was steady, neither hurried nor frantic.
He stopped before the family head and said softly, “Head of the family, the guard teams are in position and everyone is on alert. We will not give the enemy any opportunity to create a diversion.”
The head of the Gojo family nodded.
It was a lesson learned from past experience.
“Judging from the direction of the Six Eyes’ attack, was it aimed at the residence where the technical college students are staying?”
“Yes. The moment the disturbance began, Lord Masanobu led a team of Grade One sorcerers in that direction. They should have arrived by now.”
·
At the scene, now reduced to a field of ruins—
“…You’re saying this was an accident?!”
Gojo Masanobu stared wide-eyed.
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Standing before him was the culprit responsible for that earth-shaking “accident.”
A first-year student newly enrolled at the technical college: Ieiri Yuki.
The blond boy considered the question, then nodded.
“…” Gojo Masanobu.
First, he warily swept a glance over Muzan.
Then he looked around. Apart from the buildings collapsed into ruins, there did not appear to be any casualties—
No, that was not quite true.
The painter, who had never fully recovered in the first place, had been knocked unconscious by the impact of the cursed energy.
Meanwhile, the brown-haired woman who was Lord Satoru’s classmate at the technical college—the one capable of using reverse cursed technique—was treating him.
As long as he was still breathing, he should be curable.
Then Gojo Masanobu felt a pang of regret.
Lord Satoru regarded this woman solely as a classmate, without the slightest trace of romantic interest. Otherwise, if this reverse sorcerer married into the Gojo family, she would undoubtedly be an enormous asset!
His thoughts became spoken words, leaving the viewers collectively speechless.
[That’s really all he has on his mind, huh…]
[The Three Great Families… Ha. They’re evenly matched in this regard.]
[They absolutely considered marrying Yuki Tsukumo into one of the Three Great Families. After all, she’s a female sorcerer with a powerful technique and a high rank, but no background.]
[So we’ve found the reason Big Sis is always wandering around overseas!]
[Wasn’t this mentioned during the sister-school exchange event too? Female sorcerers face far more complicated difficulties. They can’t be too strong, but they can’t be too weak either. That was the gist of it.]
[Too weak, and they’ll be trampled. Too strong, and they’ll be targeted.]
[A bunch of old mandarins.]
[…Wait?!]
[What are those two in the background doing?]
Ieiri Yuki lowered his eyes.
Muzan stood beside him. The wide sleeve concealed the arm that had just taken Red head-on, its flesh burned and pitted by cursed energy.
Cursed spirits could heal themselves, and for a Special Grade cursed spirit, the process was measured in seconds.
But perfection marred by a flaw was still a kind of regret.
Especially when Muzan had been struck without warning by a terrifyingly powerful blast of cursed energy belonging to the Six Eyes and the Limitless technique. He had been caught completely off guard.
His entire body stiffened.
He stared fixedly at the Six Eyes gradually fading from the air, and murderous intent surged through him.
Yet for some reason, he did not attack.
In the world where Muzan had once lived, he both feared death and loathed anything stronger than himself, because such beings brought him a death from which there was no turning back.
The comments had described him as—
Mad, greedy, and cowardly.
But in Ieiri Yuki’s eyes—
He looked like a cat with its fur standing on end.
So pitiful, and so adorable.
Before he knew it, Yuki found himself shielding him.
He reached out and slipped his hand inside the broad sleeve hanging at the black-haired man’s side.
His pale fingertips touched the back of the man’s hand, burned and cratered by cursed energy.
The other man reacted as though scalded and immediately shook him off.
The blond boy chased after him, hooking his index finger around the still-unhealed little finger, where blood and flesh remained stuck together.
“…”
Elsewhere—
Gojo Masanobu’s gaze fell upon the black-haired cursed spirit, whose beauty rivaled that of a woman. Then it shifted to the blond boy’s face.
After a moment, he suppressed the urge to interrogate them.
At the same time, he breathed a sigh of relief.
At least this was not a surprise attack by curse users.
The guards stationed throughout the Gojo residence, tasked with preventing the enemy from creating a diversion and exploiting a gap in their defenses, could stand down as well.
“If that is the case, then I…”
A rapid series of footsteps approached.
Gojo Masanobu turned to look. It was a sorcerer from the second team, who quickly reported, “Commander, suspicious individuals have been spotted outside the elders’ residence! The family head has summoned you!”
Before he could answer, the Six Eyes once again appeared suspended in the air.
Another crimson Red burst forth.
This time, it came from the direction of the elders’ compound.
“Boom—!”
Gojo Masanobu froze for an instant, then roared, “Enemy attack!”
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