Late at night, Takeo lay in bed, tossing and turning.
After learning the truth about this world, he found it hard to fall asleep.
His mind had been filled with thoughts.
He'd considered approaching the demon slayer… but he had also wondered if he should just disappear, go into hiding, or even flee to another country—far away from the chaos.
After all, if this world was based on an anime, then in the end, the protagonist would surely win. Takeo didn't have to do anything—Tanjiro would take care of everything.
That had been his initial line of thinking.
But then he remembered…He had stood in front of the Kamado family's graves and promised to find their killer. He couldn't just walk away now.
And so he lay in bed, torn by indecision.
"Tch… guess I'll go talk to that demon slayer."
In the end, Takeo sat up from his futon, having made up his mind—he'd approach the demon slayer and try to get some information.
Even setting everything else aside, he needed to understand how people in this world trained.
While the abilities he inherited from Logan greatly boosted his chances of survival, his overall combat capability still wasn't particularly powerful.
And if the demons in this world were as terrifying as he feared,then Logan's abilities alone likely wouldn't be enough to keep him alive.
So even for the sake of self-preservation, Takeo had to find a way to obtain this world's training methods.
With that thought, Takeo's determination to seek out the demon slayer solidified.
It just so happened to be nighttime—and according to what he'd heard, demons only appear after dark, which meant the demon slayer was likely out patrolling right now, searching for signs of one.
Since Takeo was serving as a guard aboard the ship, using "patrolling" as a reason to find the demon slayer would be perfectly legitimate.
The only problem was… he had no idea if there actually was a demon on board. If there was, going out at night might be extremely dangerous.
Leaving his quarters, Takeo moved through the ship's corridors, searching for any sign of the demon slayer.
He had memorized the man's scent during the day—now, all he had to do was follow it, and he should be able to track him down easily.
Or so Takeo had thought.
But he had only walked a short distance before he stopped in his tracks,his eyes narrowing as he turned his head toward another direction.
"…The smell of blood."
A faint, metallic scent drifted through the air.
Since his transmigration had started with him crawling out of a blood-soaked grave, Takeo had become especially sensitive to the scent of blood.
And if he could smell it this clearly here, it meant someone had suffered a serious injury—high blood loss.
At night.
With the scent of blood in the air. And someone was hurt.
—This was not good.
Several key factors pieced together in Takeo's mind—and a vague suspicion began to form.
His expression turned grim as he tightened his grip on the katana the merchant had given him, cautiously moving in the direction of the scent of blood.
The source of the blood was located below deck, in the cargo hold—a place that, under normal circumstances, should be completely empty at night.
But the closer he got, the more intense the scent became. And along with the smell of blood…he picked up the scent of the demon slayer—and Ichirō!
"!!"
Ichirō?!
The moment Takeo recognized Miura Ichirō's scent in the air, he instinctively broke into a run.
He rushed down into the cargo hold and kicked the door open with one swift motion.
What he saw on the other side made him instinctively hold his breath.
Blood.
The first thing that registered in his vision was the bright red blood, splattered across the floor and walls.
The second thing he saw—was Ichirō, lying in a pool of blood, his condition unknown.
And then, just past him—
The demon slayer, standing protectively in front of Ichirō, facing off against a demon, half of its body submerged in the shadows—lurking in the water.
"Kekeke …Oh? Another one? Perfect… I'll eat you too and replenish my strength!!"
The water demon, half-submerged in the shadows, with horns on its head and blue wave-like markings across its skin, immediately shifted its attention to Takeo the moment it noticed his arrival.
The demon slayer, who was standing guard over Ichirō, saw this and his pupils contracted sharply. He shouted:
"Run! Get out of here—don't just stand there!!"
"Kuhuhu~ Too late!!!"
The water demon let out a wicked grin and lunged straight at Takeo.
The demon slayer's face twisted with urgency. Despite the injuries covering his body, he charged after the demon, trying to intercept—but he was too slow.
Injured and already lagging behind, he couldn't close the distance in time. By the time the demon's claws were just about to strike, the demon slayer had barely covered half the distance.
He could only watch in horror, convinced he was about to witness yet another child torn apart by a demon.
That's how it should have gone.
But—
"—What?!"
The demon cried out in disbelief—and the demon slayer's eyes widened in shock.
Because just as the demon's claws were about to reach Takeo,he bent low, dodging with razor-thin precision at an impossible angle—completely evading the attack!
And it didn't end there.
While dodging, Takeo had—at some point—drawn the katana at his waist.
In the flickering light of the cargo hold, the blade flashed through the air in a perfect arc, cleanly slicing through the water demon's throat!
A single, precise slash to the neck—but Takeo didn't press the attack.
Instead, he quickly shifted positions, creating distance between himself and the demon, rushing deeper into the hold—straight to where Ichirō lay in a pool of blood.
"What happened to him?! What the hell is going on?!"
Cradling Ichirō, whose breathing was shallow and weak, Takeo felt the boy's body growing colder by the second. He couldn't stop himself from yelling at the demon slayer.
The young demon slayer snapped out of his stunned daze. His eyes flicked briefly to the blade in Takeo's hand, then he responded:
"That demon caught him… It was about to eat him. I got there just in time to pull him out."
That was the demon slayer's explanation.
Takeo looked down at Ichirō again. There was indeed a large bite wound on his shoulder, with blood still pouring out of it.
Did it hit an artery? No… it looks like a deep but non-fatal wound.
Even so, the amount of blood loss was dangerously high—Ichirō's condition was critical.
He needed a doctor, and fast.
"Another demon slayer…? And a kid, no less…" came the voice of the water demon.
The deep gash across its neck, which should have been fatal, was already completely healed.
But perhaps wary of Takeo's precision strike, the demon didn't make any sudden moves for the moment.
It stood by the door, blocking the entrance to the cargo hold, its long tongue licking the blood from the corner of its mouth as it fixed its gaze on the three of them huddled together.
The demon slayer readied his blade again in silence.
He didn't bother responding to the demon's words. Instead, with his back to Takeo, he said firmly:
"Kid, I'll hold him off. You take the boy and get out of here—find a doctor."
He paused briefly before continuing:
"...Once you get out, keep going until you run into someone—don't stop for anything. Can you do that?"
"You… will you be okay?"
Takeo stared at the demon slayer's back—at the wounds on his arm and leg—and asked with clear concern.
This demon slayer didn't look like he had much fight left in him.
And if he died here, even if Takeo managed to escape with Ichirō, how far could they really get?
After a moment of thought—no more than a second—Takeo quickly moved to stop Ichirō's bleeding, wrapping the wound tightly to stem the blood flow. Then he gripped his katana and stepped up to stand beside the demon slayer.
"…I don't know exactly what's going on, but—maybe I can help."
"What? Don't be ridiculous!You saw it yourself—your sword didn't do any real damage to that demon! A normal person can't possibly fight something like this!"
Seeing that Takeo intended to fight beside him, the demon slayer couldn't help but raise his voice in protest. Takeo, however, had already realized what the issue was.
This creature—this thing called a demon—seemed to possess an extremely powerful regenerative ability, almost on par with Logan's full-strength healing factor. And against someone like that, no amount of ordinary damage would matter. Takeo understood that perfectly.
"But I can buy you some time, right? You know how to kill it—don't you?" he said, flashing a confident smile.
It was true he had no means of killing a demon himself, but if this man was called a demon slayer, then that meant he must have a way to finish it.
Takeo couldn't take one down alone, but if he worked together with the demon slayer, everything could change.
He could distract the demon, draw its attention, create an opening—maybe even help land the final blow.
"You—!" the demon slayer began, clearly still against the idea, but he didn't get the chance to finish. The water demon wasn't about to let them keep talking. Seeing the two of them standing side by side, it grinned wickedly.
"Kill me? Don't make me laugh. You're both going to die here tonight—as my dinner!"
As the last word left its mouth, the demon stomped the floor.
In an instant, two razor-sharp blades of water surged through the air—one aimed straight at Takeo, the other at the demon slayer.
_____
(～￣▽￣)～Don't forget to add this to your library!