Chereads / Demon Slayer: The Blessings of Life / Chapter 13 - Adaptation

Chapter 13 - Adaptation

Setting a new goal for herself, Kiyomi's newfound spiritual pillar brought her back from descending into madness.

Jumping off of her comfy bed, she decided to just try to adapt to her new demon identity.

Transforming from a demon to a kitsune, then back to her human form and back again, Kiyomi tested the different ways she could transform.

Now, she has two forms she can freely transform from. Her human appearance, and hybrid form.

Since both her demon and Kitsune's bloodline have merged, she can now transform into any hybrid of the two.

So in total, she has four combinations of transformations she can use. Human-demon, human-Kitsune, pure human, and Demon-Kitsune hybrid.

In her hybrid form, her eyes turn into a dark amethyst, she will also grow fox ears and tails which cannot be hidden, unless she returns to her human appearance.

Feeling the power flow throughout her body, Kiyomi tried to combine that feeling with her understanding of the breath of the moon.

Grabbing the wooden katana by her bed, Kiyomi rushed with a speed that can no longer be seen by the naked eye of an untrained person, to a huge stone pillar that apparently is just there for no reason.

Taking a deep breath, Kiyomi spun her body to create even more momentum and swung out her sword in a simple horizontal slash.

"Breath of the Moon: Eighth Form Moon-Dragon Ringtail!"

*Boom!* *Crack~!*

Kiyomi created a singular gigantic slash that slowly decreased in size as it went further, effectively tripling her normal attack range.

Unlike the original sword slash, which caused a huge yet concentrated strike to the pillar, cutting it clean in half.

The numerous chaotic blades on the original sword cut caused destruction on a much smaller and messier scale.

Causing sword scratches everywhere on the ground, small stone debris fell back to the floor.

Even after going through the huge stone pillar that had a diameter of around a meter, the sword slash kept going to destroy two more pillars before finally dissipating.

'I did this?'

Kiyomi looked at the pillar in astonishment, then looked at her hands.

"This is at least a fifteen times increase in strength!"

The strength that Kiyomi was talking about wasn't just the increase in the amount of force she could use, but a comprehensive strength which included agility, strength, defense, and other bodily attributes like regeneration.

*Guruu~!*

Feeling an even stronger protest from her stomach, Kiyomi felt at a loss.

"Ugh... I'm so hungry.. what should I do.. I don't want to eat humans.."

At this time, Kokushibo appeared in the distance, running with a body on his shoulder.

Kiyomi's face paled, her instincts yelled at her to rush to the body and devour it, and yet her reasoning argued with her instincts.

*Sniff*

To Kiyomi, who has had nothing to eat for an entire day, the dead body with blood still flowing out of its wounds was a fatal attraction to her.

*Thump*

"Come on.. eat it. You'll feel better."

Dropping the dead body to the ground in front of her, Kokushibo looked at the horrified Kiyomi.

'No! Resist it! Resist! Nesuko can do it! So why can't I?!'

*GURUU~!*

Seeing the body in front of her, still fresh with the smell of blood, Kiyomi's instincts got even stronger as it almost overpowered her reasoning.

"Get it away from me! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!"

Quickly sliding under the bedsheets to prevent herself from seeing the body, she hugged the sheets closer to herself, wanting to calm her stimulated stomach.

Kokushibo, seeing the resistance of Kiyomi towards human flesh, wanted to convince her.

He opened his mouth and closed it several times before deciding to not say anything.

Carrying the body away, Kokushibo glanced at Kiyomi, who was still under the bedsheets.

...

"So? What do you need, Kokushibo?" Said Douma, waving his favorite fans.

His pair of sharp fans were made entirely out of shining gold, a lotus design engraved across them, and a hoop of jade-colored strings hanging from their bases.

Douma is a young man with a moderately toned and muscular body, who is of a notably pale complexion and possessed unusually long, pointed nails that appeared to be stained a pale blue.

His hair could appear either silver or a pale golden blond, and he wore it parted to his left, the shorter parts around his face seeming to flare out to either side around his head, curving backward with one strand left down his face to fall between his eyes, while the longer parts were left to drape centrally down his back in a thinning spiral.

His eyes are incredibly rare and beautiful in color, and they appeared to be made up of an array of rainbow pastel tones that fade into one another as they circle his irises.

"...Get someone to put bits of human flesh into human food and give it to me. Daily."

Kokushibo states his needs.

Douma, hearing this request, his expression pitying Kokushibo. But since Douma has no emotions, Kokushibo knew he was mocking him.

"Oh~! So it's for her! How long do you think it will be until she finds out? Heheheh~!"

"That's none of your business.."

"Yes~yes! It's none of my business between you brother and sister.. hehe.."

...

"I'm so hungry..."

Kiyomi's stomach grumbled as if it were protesting for the unjust treatment of not giving it food.

*poke*

Feeling the familiar feeling poking her cheeks through the bedsheets, Kiyomi complained.

"Mph~! Kokushibo!! Stop it!"

Lifting up the covers, Kiyomi slapped the hand that kept poking her.

"I brought you some food.."

"No!"

Looking disgusted, Kiyomi quickly put away her causal expression and sternly replied.

"It's onigiri," said Kokushibo, while taking out a box and lifted the lid.

"What did you say? Onigiri?!"

"Yeah."

Looking inside the box, her eyes glowed.

Inside laid eight pieces of Onigiri that were seasoned with a touch of salt and sesame seeds.

Resisting the urge to just grab one and munch on it, Kiyomi turned to look at Kokushibo for any lies.

"Wait a minute. You didn't put human flesh in it, right?" Kiyomi questioned.

"No. It's bits of tuna," replied Kokushibo, with the same expressionless face as ever.

Taking the box from Kokushibo's hand, Kiyomi took out an onigiri and broke it in half, looking inside for its filling.

Taking out a small square piece of pink flesh, Kiyomi checked it over and over again before confirming it was fish.

Still looking slightly skeptical, Kiyomi put the chunk of meat back and brought the onigiri to her mouth.

'Oh!! It's sweet and chewy!'

Happily chewing on the onigiri, Kiyomi devoured all of it in less than five minutes.

Still feeling slightly hunger, she looked regretful that there was only so much.

"Chotto matte... Sweet?"

Kokushibo on the other hand instantly had a dark face when he heard Kiyomi saying "Sweet".

"That was human flesh. Right? Kokushibo."

"... Yeah."

Taking a deep breath, Kiyomi tried to soothe herself.

'Calm down. Calm down. Calm the F*ck down. Look, eating human flesh isn't that bad, Kaneki did it too! For demons, it's like eating beef! Yeah, Beef! I'm eating beef!'

<> (>_>) <>

'System!!?'

<> Sorry, wrong world. Bye. <>

'Hey! Wait! Stop!'

<> What do you want? I'm very busy you know? (¬_¬) <>

'If you don't give me the ability to eat human food from now on I'll report you to the system god!'

<> ┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ <>

<> Congratulations, you have gained the ability to eat fish as a demon! <>

<> You remember nothing of this. Ok bye now. <>

'Wait that's it!? Hey! HEY!'

...

Waking up from her conversation with the system, veins popped up from her face as she felt angrier than ever.

Growing ears and tails, she transformed into her demon form from an overdose of anger.

Her tails were longer now, at around a little less than a meter long.

Looking at the Kokushibo looking at her guiltily, she decided to let it out all on him.

'Damn! Tanjiro was much cuter and easier to bully than this clone of Tomioka Giyu!'

*Spoof* x6

Kokushibo just decided to take Kiyomi's anger.

"Hmph! You're a bad brother! You're a bad brother! I'm going to ignore you from now on!"

Hearing this sentence, in Kokushibo's eyes, a familiar figure completely overlapped with the angry yet kawaii Kiyomi.

He subconsciously muttered, "Gomenasai, Kiyomi."

"Eh?"

Kiyomi, who had not told Kokushibo her name yet, was stunned when she heard him say her name.

"Eh?"

Kokushibo was also equally stunned as he got out from his trance.

And once again, the two began the third round of their staring contest.