……

At the moment when the tail note of Grief Mingyu fell.

"Roar!!" The size of the cowardly ghost in front of him suddenly increased, and it quickly changed from the size of a mouse to the height of two people!

The words in the tongue of the cowardly ghost gradually distorted into the word "hate", and the body swelled with it.

A huge shadow enveloped Tanjuro at once, and the hater quickly turned around, his mouth open angrily, and his fangs showed out of his mouth:

"Don't bully...!!" He roared.

Because Tanjuro's knife is stuck in the neck of the hater.

So, when the hater turned around and came face to face with Tanjuro.

The distance between the two is particularly close.

Moment.

In the red eyes of the hater, the flower earrings of his earlobes swayed slightly.

Whether it's Ji Nu or Coke, he's never been so close to Tanjuro before.

Right now.

“… Weakling. The hater's hideous and indignant words suddenly froze, and the strong tone suddenly swallowed into his stomach.

Tanjuro's appearance was immediately engraved in his eyes.

Rustling...

The image engraved in the blood, with a faint black noise, reappears in my mind.

An inexplicable sense of fear and suffocation welled up in the hater's heart.

It was a man dressed in maroon feathers.

Stand there silently.

Miscellaneous... What is it...

The hater looked at Tanjuro, the image in his mind lingering, and his huge body trembled slightly.

A momentary trance is fatal in battle.

Tanjuro raised his head, he didn't care about the hater who was suddenly stunned, but unhurriedly took down the wedge pill stuck in the hater's neck.

Click!

After becoming a hater, the ontological cowardly ghost still exists.

It's just hiding in the heart of the hater.

“… So familiar. Tanjuro removed the red-colored wedge pill and aimed the blade at the heart of the stunned hater.

There, at this moment, there is a red ninja killing point.

At this time, the hater who was stunned finally reacted, and his tone was not as angry as just now, but a little hasty:

"Wait... Wait a minute! ”

But Tanjuro did not hesitate.

The red wedge pill tilted slightly, pressed against the hater's chest, and stabbed upward!

Poof!

The red blood flowed down the blade of the wedge pill, but it was evaporated into a blood mist by the high-temperature blade halfway.

He skillfully pierced the wedge pill into his "human" heart again.

Tanjuro, who has a transparent vision, just passed the blade straight through the neck of the main body hiding in the heart of the hater.

"Puff ho ho wow!" A mouthful of blood spurted out of the hateful ghost's mouth.

Suddenly.

Wow –

Bits of ash scattered in front of him.

"No... Don't cough cough..."

The hater knelt down weakly, and he grabbed Tanjuro with his hand, and his mouth coughing up blood seemed to be muttering something.

Tanjuro drooped from Wedgemaru's blade, and he watched as the hater slowly collapsed to the ground, gradually turning to ashes.

"If you hesitate, you will lose."

His tone was flat—as someone had told him so many times.

……

Then.

Rustling...

In the forest beside him, there was a sound of grinding and rubbing.

"Ahh Sure enough, it's here! ”

A child's exclamation came from there.

Tanjuro looked back slightly.

The young Toki Muichiro was pulling his father and brother by the way, smiling happily, from the forest to this direction.

Muichiro let go of his father's hand and waved at Tanjuro:

"Hello ——!"

"Uncle, are you also here to fight?"

“…？”

Tanjuro, who was hanging from the blade, looked at the Toki family who came from the forest in a daze.

Tanjuro blinked his eyes, and his trance-like vision refocused several times before he was sure that he was not hallucinating.

- Shitou Muichiro?

He looked at Shitou Muichiro in surprise, who was wearing a cloud pattern.

Muichiro... Appeared in the Forging Knife Village.

His gaze slowly moved to the only Lang beside Muichiro, with dark red hair, pigtails, and a smile on his bowed head.

Tanjuro was stunned for a moment before he recognized that this was his father who only lived in Muichiro's memories.

Since noticing that the upper strings of the Bantengu and the Jade Pot have advanced, and the time for the attack on the Forging Sword Village has also been advanced.

He knew that the original plot had already been mixed up by him.

But—

Tanjuro's gaze shifted to the knife on Muichiro's waist.

- Is it already like this?

He was blown away.

Then.

Tanjuro noticed the purgatory Maki Jurou who was leaning against the tree next to him, resting with his arms crossed.

The two glanced at each other, and the latter nodded to Tanjuro.

Syllable!

"Idiot!"

Arichiro on the side heard Wuichiro's words, and was suddenly startled, and slapped his brother a little speechless:

"We must be the only ones who come to the actual battle!"

He said with a frown, and secretly glanced at Tanjuro vigilantly: "What nonsense are you talking about with others!" ”

"It hurts! Brother! Muichiro covered his head and shouted to Ichiro with a reluctant face:

"Don't hit me in the head all the time, I'll be stupid!"

Looked at.

“…？”

Arichiro snorted, his expression gradually falling silent.

With a pout, he gave Muichiro a deep look.

So is my father, and so is Muichiro.

Obviously, they were all strangers they met on the road, so they followed them unsuspectingly.

And also!

Arichiro frowned slightly, he recalled the jade pot and the half-tengu he saw just now, and his heart was stunned.

- Something is clearly wrong!

Why are you able to deal with it so blandly?

Arichiro slowly turned his head away and said no more.

Muichiro clutched his head and looked at his brother strangely, but quickly remembered what he had wanted to do.

He was stunned for a moment, and then hurriedly looked at Tanjuro:

"Ah, by the way, uncle!"

Muichiro put down the hand covering his head, as if he wasn't the one who had been beaten just now:

"Just now! That one! His eyes were full of joy, and he couldn't stop gesturing with his hand:

"Smack, snap, swordsmanship that hits that loach, how did you do it!"

Muichiro took a deep breath, he clenched his fists and raised them slightly, his eyes were full of yearning:

"That's amazing!"

In his heart, there was still a word that he didn't say.

Although that six-eyed uncle's swordsmanship is also very powerful, his appearance is a little too terrifying!

Tanjuro stared at Muichiro and didn't speak—he was really surprised by the other's extraordinarily cheerful and lively personality.

But.

He glanced at Muichiro's smiling father, and Ichiro, who was holding his arms and tilting his head beside him.

With his family all there, maybe he should have been this character.

After the surprise.

Swish! Swish!

Tanjuro quickly looked at both sides, his brows furrowed slightly, and a coolness welled up in his heart from behind.

How-

- Something doesn't feel right.

After Muichiro finished saying this, Tanjuro sensed a rather strange sense of crisis like a thorn in his back.

Then.

"Haha." Shi Tou only Lang touched the heads of his two sons, raised his head and laughed twice at Tanjuro, quite embarrassed:

"That's... Sorry, the two kids are playful. ”

He smiled, his tone very flat, his eyes narrowed:

"When we first met, my name was Shi Tou Yuro."

"We're in... Actual combat. ”

The only lang explained, he stretched out his hand and pointed to the ashes that Bantengu had turned into, and asked:

"Sir, do you know where there is a tree like this, I have cut it down, but my two sons still need to try."

Tanjuro looked at the only Lang in a daze.

——？

(End of chapter)