“Then let’s just do away with the long opening remarks, a toast to Kanae-sensei!”

With a shout from Uzui Tengen, the sound of glasses tinkling against each other rose and fell.

It was only a Thursday and the popular Izakaya that was about a ten minute journey from the Kimetsu Academy where they were employed in was already packed full of tipsy customers.

“I’m Kochou Kanae, it’s an honour to be able to take up the position of a biology teacher at my familiar alma mater. If there’s anything I may have done improperly, feel free to point it out.”

Kanae bowed her head quietly. Her charming and delicate looks have already drawn amazement from people wherever she went.

Her younger sisters* were also refined beauties and were idols within the male students’ hearts. However, Kanae herself, while she was a student in Kimetsu Academy, was a legendary individual who gained the affections amongst both the male and female students.
(T/N: Refers to Shinobu and Kanao)

(The boys were conquered in such a short time.)

Uzui drank his beer while discreetly observing the tables around them. Never mind the male teachers, even the female teachers were charmed by Kanae’s actions.

In actual fact, when she just got employed into the school and was introducing herself during the morning assembly, the situation was chaotic. A certain member of disciplinary committee got so excited that he made a filthy high-pitched scream and everyone around had to cover their ears. Then after a certain physical education teacher lashed out at said person, the friends of that person dragged his unconscious body away.

(On the contrary….)

Uzui glanced at the faculty members at the same table as him.

The history teacher, Rengoku Kyoujuro did not drink much alcohol and was energetically gobbling his sweet potato rice. The math teacher Shinazugawa Sanemi was, on the other hand, drinking alcohol like it was water, and nagging at his brother over the phone about his math score. When Uzui thought that the boy on the other end was most likely kneeling on the ground and trembling all over, he could not help but feel a deep sympathy.

Then when it came to the Homeroom teacher of Class 1-Bamboo, Himejima Gyomei, as he was already teaching in Kimetsu Academy when Kanae was a student, he kept to himself when he faced Kanae.

The physical education teacher cum disciplinary committee mentor – Tomioka Giyuu was quietly eating the side dishes then drinking from his sake cup. As though he did not want to talk. But it was not because he was in a bad mood, it was merely because he was unable to eat and talk at the same time.

Have these guys shaved their heads and become monks so they have cleansed their hearts of worldly desires? Uzui could not help but be baffled. But it was because of this reason that they were arranged to sit with Kanae.

Among these bunch of colleagues who just did whatever they wanted, the one in charge of talking was mainly Uzui.

Kanae was, however, a good listener and no matter what topic the conversation came to, she would be able to give a sincere and enjoyable reply. But when Uzui mentioned a strange rumour that became a popular topic among the students lately, the smile disappeared from Kanae’s face.

“The pot in the biology classroom and the old man that crawls around the corridors….?”

Kanae placed her hand under her nicely shaped chin and made an action of thinking deeply.

“Oh? You don’t dare to listen to horror stories, Kanae-sensei?”

Uzui said this as a joke but Kanae only shook her head with a sweet smile.

“No. If I really had to say it, I quite like them.”

Then her expression became stern again and she continued talking:

“But since a student even got hurt, as a teacher, I can’t just standby and do nothing.”

“Kanae-sensei is absolutely right!! I completely agree!!”

Rengoku’s eyes suddenly widened and he put down the sweet potato rice he was gobbling down with his head buried in it and raised his head. He was a hot-blooded teacher who was adored by his students and he usually spoke about his affection towards his students.

“When a student is in trouble, how can I, Rengoku Kyoujuro, just do nothing?!”

“No, why don’t you continue to eat your sweet potato rice quietly.”

“If so, how about we patrol the biology classroom and the corridor tomorrow night?! What do you think?! Uzui?!”

“Why are you dragging me into this? Who would want to go?”

“It is our jobs as teachers to protect the academy’s peace.”

Uzui felt a wave of fatigue when he saw his enthusiastic friend. Rengoku at this kind of time was especially troublesome. Just as he was thinking how to convince his colleague to dismiss the idea, Kanae raised her hand and said:

“—If it’s not too much trouble, may I accompany the two of you?”

“Ah? No, I’m not going.

“Please, I’ll definitely lend a hand.”

“I already said I’m not going.”

“Let’s all go protect the students together, Uzui!!”

Uzui was extremely troubled. These two people were amazingly difficult to talk to. Rengoku was already self-centered in the first place, he had not expected that Kanae was not much better.

Two pairs of clear eyes were staring straight at him and just looking at them made his skin itch.

(Let’s just finish it quickly and leave quickly.)

Nothing was going to show up anyway. At most they were just going to go round the school for an hour then they would give up.

“Fine, fine, fine, I get it. We’ll meet at the school gates tomorrow night at eleven.”

“Yeah!”

“Thank you.”

Rengoku and Kanae both smiled at that moment. After throwing out some casual words to handle those two, Uzui looked at Himejima who was seated across him. This way, someone can go along with him.

“Himejima-sensei, you would definitely go right?”

“Patrol, was it….?”

Even though this man had a tough and burly body, he had a very soft heart. He raised his head from his heated sake cup and quietly shed tears.

“Of course, I would very much like to join….a pity that I have business trip tomorrow. Because I cannot be sure when I would return, I will not go. I apologise.”

“What, isn’t that some bad timing—Shinazugawa, how about you?”

Uzui directed his gaze towards Himejima’s right. The colleague had just finished his call with his younger brother. He put down his phone and raised his head, impatiently narrowing one of his eyes that was under his long bangs as he looked towards Uzui.

“Hah?”

Even when he was in class, Shinazugawa still did not wear a tie and opened up his shirt. Even though he looked ferocious, just getting near him would be enough to cause a kid to cry, and his words come out sharp and piercing, he was extremely gentle to the old and feeble as well as towards women and children. Unless it came to matters involving Tomioka who he got along with like water mixing with oil, or someone who looked down on mathematics which he loved the most, he was actually a very reasonable person.

But he just would not button up that shirt of his properly , even when it came to formal events like weddings or funerals.

“You heard us when you were on the phone right? We’re going to patrol the school tomorrow.”

“Sorry, I can’t make it.”

“Ah? What? You’re gonna look for a woman?”

“Hah? Don’t lump me with the likes of you.”

Shinazugawa angrily clicked his tongue and then continued to talk roughly:

“My mom usually works overtime till really late hours on Friday nights.”

He probably had to go fetch his mother from her workplace or he had to get home quickly because of his younger siblings.

He heard that Shinazugawa’s father died when he was quite young and his mother worked hard to raise her seven children on her own, so this colleague of his prioritized his mother and his family.

“This older brother still loves his family as always huh.”

“Noisy.”

After hearing Uzui’s teasing, Shinazugawa suddenly turned his head away. The others watching from the side could not help but smile.

“—Tomioka.”

Uzui looked towards his right.

“How about you?”

Tomioka who had not uttered a word since just now swallowed the food in his mouth and slowly opened his mouth to speak:

”……………I…….”

“Since you have nothing else going on, come along then.”

It was not known if he was drunk, but Tomioka was speaking in a more slurred manner than usual. Uzui lost his patience and made a decision in partial coercion. At this moment, a huge plate of fried chicken wings, takoyaki as well as braised salmon with radish was delivered to their table. Seeing his favourite food was there, Tomioka’s eyes lit up for a moment.

“Here, drink up.”

Uzui said and then poured sake into the sake cup. His colleague silently nodded his head and then drank alcohol in silence.

Afterwards, Kanae’s welcoming party dragged on till early morning. Most of the teachers had to endure their hangover and lack of sleep and stand at the lecture stand.

–Then, it reached the appointed time of eleven at night.

*

“Cold….Who would have thought the night would be so cold.”

Uzui arched his back in the bustling night wind. Because he arrived earlier than expected, the rest were not here yet. The cold weather as well as the persistent hangover made him sleepy.

Uzui chewed gum to keep himself awake and played with his phone apps to kill time.

“Sorry, I’m late.”

“You’re really slow, Tomi—”

When he turned around, Tomioka was running towards his direction with his hand raised. Once he saw that radiant smile, the bubble gum that Uzui was blowing halfway responded by popping.

After reaching Uzui and looking around for a while, Tomioka let out a sigh of relief.

“The others don’t seem to be here yet. Even though it’s already June, the nights are still pretty cold. Luckily, we don’t have to make Kanae-sensei wait.”

“……..”

“Ahh, Uzui-kun, do you feel cold? If you don’t mind, I can lend you my jacket.”

“Who are you?!”

Uzui, who had finally returned to his senses, shouted loudly and Tomioka blinked his eyes in surprise.”

“Eh? Who….I’m Tomioka Giyuu.”

“What do you mean “I’m Tomioka Giyuu”. The Tomioka I know is a man who does not like to talk, has a moody personality, ignores whoever he wants and has a gaze which god knows what he’s thinking, not this cheerful person.”

“Isn’t that too much….Uzui-kun, is that how you’ve always seen me?”

“And why are you calling me “Uzui-kun”? You have never addressed me like that.”

Uzui then felt a chill, his entire body was showing signs of discomfort and there were goosebumps appearing on both his arms.

(What’s up with this guy….)

Now that he thought about it, during their drinking party yesterday, some strange mushroom seemed to have gotten mixed into the braised salmon and radish that Tomioka was eating. At that time, the store owner apologised to them directly and said that when they were preparing the ingredients, something accidently got mixed in. Could that be poisonous? Uzui got worried.

“Sorry! I’m late!!”

“Ahh, Rengoku. You came at the right—”

Uzui turned in the direction of the voice only to see his friend carrying a ridiculously large mountain climbing bag. He could not help but hug his head.

“I’ll say….Did you hear properly where we were going? What’s with that bag?”

“Senjurou was very worried about me so he gathered all the salt in the house for me to bring along.”

“Is this full of salt?! How much salt does your house have?”

“I have coarse salt, table salt as well as rock salt! As well as salt-flavoured rice crackers!!”

“What do you need salt-flavoured rice crackers for? For eating—And also, isn’t this rock salt too big, it’s almost as large as a baby.”

“You’re right. Which shop sells this kind of rock salt?”

Tomioka poked his head out from behind Uzui who had lost all his strength and grinned (with a ^_^).

“But Senjurou really is a good younger brother who cares for his older brother. I only have an elder sister and no younger siblings at all.”

After hearing that cheerful tone, Uzui recalled the problem from just now and grabbed Rengoku’s shoulder.

“Rengoku, there’s something not right about Tomioka.”

“Tomioka?”

Rengoku made a face like he could not grasp the situation.

“This again?”

Tomioka shrugged like he was bothered. Seeing that the other party intentionally make a helpless expression, Uzui got so angry his teeth were tingling. Tomioka averted his gaze from Uzui and spoke to Rengoku:

“He’s always like this. Rengoku-kun, can you say something to persuade Uzui-kun?”

(The way you are speaking is already weird. What’s with the “-kun” this “-kun” that?)

A frustrated Uzui looked at Rengoku and tried to look for his support.

However, the line that went along “Yeah! Something is definitely not right!!” never came from his colleague’s mouth.

Instead, he questioned Uzui instead.

“In what way?”

“Ah? Eh….well.”

Faced with an unexpected question, Uzui could not say anything for a moment. There was not a shred of doubt in his friend’s eyes.

“Didn’t you say that something’s not right about Tomioka? In what way?”

Could it be possible that in Rengoku’s eyes, Tomioka was no different from usual? This physical education teacher who was just like any other handsome stud….

(Isn’t it obvious that everything about him is not right, this is too weird.)

A pity that Shinazugawa Sanemi was not around. Unlike that dense Rengoku, Sanemi would definitely give the reaction that Uzui expected.

When he thought to this point, Uzui suddenly hesitated.

No. Wait. Was it really like this?

(What kind of person was Tomioka originally?)

Seeing that Rengoku was completely lacking suspicion, Uzui’s mental state started to crumble.

Tomioka. Tomioka Giyuu. The usual Tomioka—

Uzui gradually lost his confidence. His colleague’s face occupied his mind and with a snap, there was a sound of string snapping.

(……….ah—somehow it doesn’t matter anymore.)

Speaking of which, why does he have to think about Tomioka’s issue.

(It’s a hallucination, it must be a hallucination.)

Uzui suddenly felt the situation was just out of this world. Then Kanae also reached the scene and the group started their night patrol.

They went through the school gate together and entered the school compound.

And of course, the academy was extremely dark at night, as though it was another building they had never seen before.

*

“Ugh, it’s really dark.”

“Even though this is not the right time to say it, it it feels like we are at some test of courage game, how exciting.”

“Watch your step, Kanae-sensei.”

“Un, thank you.”

Rengoku held a torch while Uzui used the light on his phone. The two of them lead the way down the pitch-black corridor while Kanae and Tomioka followed behind.

“Let’s start with the pot in the biology classroom.”

They could not be sure where the old person that crawled through the corridors would appear, so they decided to start from a place where the location was known.

“Yeah! If I didn’t remember wrongly, is it about the pot, that contained an old person that came out, and would crawl around the biology classroom?!”

“Don’t mix the two incidents together.”

The original strange story became even more ridiculous and creepy.

They moved forward while trying to make sense of the contents of the two rumours.

– It has three mouths, one eye and many arms.

– The youkai would cling onto the person it targeted.

-It will boast about weird things. If you choose to ignore it, the youkai will all its arms to tickle you with all its might.

-It’s single. (According to a certain youth who likes battle dolls.)

-If you looked carefully, its left and right side are not too symmetrical. But if you point this out, the youkai would get so mad it would spew insults.

-It believes it’s an artist yet it laughs in a wretched manner.

“Then regarding the youkai that crawls along the corridors—”

-It crawls throughout the school crying.

-It spews words of grudges.

-It looks like an elderly person wearing a kimono but if you looked carefully, it has horns growing from its head and fangs. It does not look human at all.

-It will attack those that are smaller than it and then steal their belongings.

-It tried to attack Tokito from the middle school division but it got viciously drop-kicked by him and now has a huge bump on its head.

“In this case, they aren’t a big deal at all.”

Uzui sighed.

Clinging onto others, tickling, stealing, these can be done by humans too. Besides having a frightening appearance, the youkais were just doing annoying things at the most. Also the corridor crawling youkai lost to a middle school boy. Uzui could not disagree with the entire task any more than this.

He was not enthusiastic about this in the first place, now, he was even more down hearted.

On the other hand—

“We definitely cannot let those youkais off!!”

Rengoku got unusually angry and stiffened his face.

“Harassing people is wrong!!”

“Well, I mean, that is true….”

“No matter what, they cannot harm the students!! I, Rengoku Youjuro, would definitely get rid of them!”

The hot-blooded History teacher declared loudly.

As though to go against his declaration, a piercing sound suddenly came from deep down the dim corridor.

Pitter patter…pitter-patter….

It was the sound of something crawling along the ground.

The sound of crying could be heard occasionally and a hoarse voice lamented:

“Why….does everyone keep bullying me……I did nothing wrong……why……”

That miserable voice continued to grumble:

“It’s not my fault…….I’m not at fault….if you want to blame, blame these hands…….but, why does everyone bully me…….ah……how hateful…….the world is full of vicious and brutal individuals who torment the “weak”……”

Uzui stopped in his steps and used his phone to light up the direction the voice was coming from.

“Eee——————-”

An old person with two sharp horns and cracked skin was trembling under the light. The old person had an ancient looking kimono and at a glance, one would have thought it was human. But a careful look would make one realise it was monstrous. A huge bump swelled up from its forehead to the top of its head. It must have been caused by a kick from that Tokito of the middle school division.

(……Are you kidding? It really appeared.)

He had assumed this was most likely a misunderstanding among the students, but he never thought it really existed….

Uzui did not know what to do at that moment. If the other party was human, if they were unreasonable, he could just beat them up and settle the problem—

But he could not possibly settle a youkai with his fists.

“Oi, Rengoku, let’s throw salt first. Take your salt out.”

Uzui said then turned to his side only to not find a trace of his colleague.

“Ahh? Where did that guy go off to….Ah?”

Seeing that Rengoku had briskly walked past the youkai without any hesitation, Uzui was stunned and his eyes widened.

(What is that guy doing? He couldn’t be so scared that he pretended not to see it? No, no, no, that guy could not possibly do that.)

From the time they knew each other since they were students, Uzui had never seen the former being frightened of anything.

Also, didn’t he say that he must get rid of the demons for the sake of the students?

(Perhaps he has a strategy? But is he the kind of person who can even thinking ahead?)

When Uzui sunk into confusion, Kanae made a bit of movement behind him and then Uzui remembered her existence.

“Kanae-sensei, are you alright?”

Uzui showed his concern for the female teacher who just joined their faculty. Witnessing such a chilling youkai with her own two eyes, she must be terrified.

“If you are scared, close your eyes and grab my—”

Uzui stopped talking halfway through his words, because she was not frightened at all.

The beautiful biology teacher swiftly walked past Uzui and stood in front of the monstorous old man. With a clear and bright voice, she started to sing:

“Rin-Byou-tou-sha-kai—”

After singing the Kuji-in*, she pulled out something that looked like talismans from the inside pocket of her coat and threw them at the old person’s forehead.

(T/N: Google Kuji-in. The line Kanae was singing stands for “May the presiders over warriors be my vanguard”)

Once the talismans touched the bump, the youkai’s body burnt up at once.

“Yaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The old person let up a terrible scream.

The youkai’s body burnt in an instant and in no time, it burnt till not even ash was left behind.

A imposing silence enveloped their surroundings.

“……….what?”

Because the development of the situation was too sudden, Uzui was completely in shock. Then Kanae grinned and said:

“It’s alright now.”

“Eek.”

The shriek did not come from Uzui, but from Tomioka.

He slowly backed away from Kanae.

“Let’s go.”

“Oi.” Seeing that Kanae was nonchalantly urging them forward, Uzui could not help but say something.

“Just now, that was—”

“Is there a problem?”

Kanae turned her head with a smile that was as beautiful as a fairy’s. Even though Kanae’s tone and attitude was as gentle and steady as always, Uzui, instead, felt that she was threatening him not to ask any further so he could only swallow his words back.

In this kind of situation, it was no use to say any more words to women.

This was a principle that Uzui learnt from experience.

“What are you guys doing?! Hurry up and head to the biology classroom!!”

Rengoku who had walked on ahead realized that the other two did not follow and he energetically waved his arm while standing in the corridor.

This guy was no different from usual. No, it was more than that. From the start, it seemed like he did not even bother with the strange incident that happened just now.

Even though he felt that something did not seem right, Uzui still tailed after his high-spirited colleague who was proceeding towards the biology classroom.

Tomioka did a small jog and followed behind Uzui.

It was not known if he was scared of Kanae, but Tomioka turned his head once in a while and kept a certain distance between themselves

He even attempted to simply hug Uzui’s arm.

(Oi Oi Oi….isn’t this too much?)

This guy was also weird.

Was Tomioka such a cowardly person?

–However, Uzui was already usure what Tomioka was originally like and he quickly gave up on thinking.

However he kept feeling some strange kind of chill and his body was immensely fatigued.

Just finish the patrol in the academy and go have some Ramen, Uzui hastened his pace slightly.

*

When they got to the front of the biology classroom, Uzui turned his head to look towards Kanae.

“Right, Kanae-sensi, you’ve never seen that strange pot before?”

“No….I’ve never seen it before.”

Uzui was unsure if it was just in his mind but Kanae’s tone sounded like she felt it was a pity.

Even though Kanae’s attitude was bothering Uzui, but since the biology teacher herself expressed that she never seen it before, it seems that this particular monster does not stay in the biology classroom all the time.

“Don’t tell me that pot can move? How is that possible—”

Uzui said to himself as he opened the door to the biology classroom.

“The inside is dark, be careful.”

Kanae reminded the rest in a concerned manner and at that moment, Tomioka let out an ill-mannered shriek.

The classroom had its black curtains drawn closed and it was actually a lot darker than the other classrooms and the corridor. However, Uzui quickly discovered that pot.

Because a hideous lifeform had erupted out of the mouth of the pot like it was some genie. Even to Uzui who was an art teacher, the scene before him was still very surreal.

“Gya yaya, so it’s the dull-witted teachers. What business do you have with me, Gyokko? Hee hee hee.”

Perhaps it was so bored that it had become on the edge, once it saw Uzui and the rest, that thing that addressed itself as Gyokko had an expression of exuberance as it carefully measured all of them.

“Hmph, even though you are all monkeys that lack a sense of beauty, I won’t be that picky.

“…..That thing is even more gross than the rumours have it.

Uzui frowned.

Then.

“What?!”

Rengoku suddenly shouted.

“The pot youkai has appeared?! Where is it?!”

“Do you still have to ask, it’s in front of us.”

“Mu?! Where?!”

His colleague grabbed his rock salt and looked in the completely opposite direction.

“Is it the curtains?! Is it hiding behind the curtains?!”

“No, I said it’s in front of us. What’s up with you?”

Kanae drew close to Uzui who was frowning, deep in thought and quietly spoke next to his ear.

“Uzui-sensei, Rengoku-sensei can’t see that youkai.

“Hah? Isn’t it clearly there?”

“Once in a while, there would these kinds of people. Enthusiastic, optimistic, energetic or those who are extremely dense….”

When she spoke to the last part, Kanae seemed to hold her words back.

Super optimistic, full of energy and amazingly dense—

That seemed like the best portrayal of this colleague of his.

Thinking of Rengoku’s unexplainable actions from just now, Uzui’s expression relaxed.

“Could it be, during the time when we saw the old man, he also—”

“That’s right, I believe he could not see that either. And most likely, he did not hear as well….”

While Uzui and Kanae were talking to each other, Rengoku was still looking around wildly, trying his hardest to find the Youkai that was harassing the students

“Stop hiding, come out!! Get out and fight me in the open!!”

“Another muscle brained idiot, seems like he is unable to see my beautiful form. How dull is he?”

Gyokko laughed in a manner that made people mad and Uzui spoke, irritated:

“Rengoku, on the right side of the blackboard where there’s a sink.”

“Over there?! Got it!!”

Rengoku nodded his head energetically and raised his hand that had the rock salt up high.

–The next second.

The rock salt crashed into the black board and there was a loud sound.

“Yii……”

The three mouths on Gyokko made a strange scream.

“What now, Uzui?! Did I hit?!”

A pity the large piece of rock salt missed Gyokko and found its landing spot just mere centimeters from it. However, the ashen coloured creature suddenly became quiet and sneakily retreated back into the pot.

Kanae took that chance to go forward and used a talisman to seal the opening of the pot. After that, she thanked Rengoku.

“You did great. Thanks to you, Rengoku-sensei, the students will not get pestered and insulted or tickled by this youkai.”

“Is it?! That’s great!!”

Seeing that Kanae adorably applauding and cheering, Rengoku showed a bright smile.

(This guy….actually used the power of physics to get the youkai to back down.)

Uzui looked towards his colleague with some degree of fear.

“What is it? Uzui.”

“Nothing.”

Uzui subconsciously averted his gaze and just happened to come face to face with Tomioka who had turned as white as a sheet. Seeing how terrible his complexion looked, Uzui got a shock. Tomioka looked like a corpse.

“Tomioka, are you alright?”

“I, I’m fine, Uzui-kun. It’s just that Rengoku-kun is too amazing….I got startled….ha……hahaha.”

Tomioka gave a forced smile but there was not a hint of humour in his eyes. He was shaking and his perspiring non-stop. No matter how one looked, he did not look fine.

“After that, it’s the youkai that crawls up and down the corridor!!”

Rengoku rode on the momentum and rushed out of the biology classroom immediately.

He did not know that Kanae had subdued that old man with her own hands. Just as Uzui was ready to tell him this matter—

“Found it!”

His friend suddenly shouted from outside the classroom.

“Upstairs!!”

“Ah? That thing has already been gotten rid of by Kanae-sensei—”

When Uzui poked his head out into the corridor, Rengoku had already skipped six steps with each pace towards the staircase next to the biology classroom.

“Like I was trying to tell you, that thing has already been exterminated by Kanae-sensei. Right?”

Uzui looked at Kanae who was behind him and looked for her support. However, Kanae just spoke with a troubled expression:

“….I definitely heard something coming from upstairs as well.”

They heard footsteps going “pachi pachi”.

“It could be a thief.”

“No way. Which thief in this world would make such strange footsteps?”

Furthermore, this was a school, there was nothing valuable in this place.

But it was not as though no thief had never targeted this school before. He heard that a few days ago, the school had just upgraded their computers to new models and a thief had stolen all of them.

Even though he did not feel it was possible, Uzui still chased after Rengoku and headed upstairs.

And what was there were not thieves.

“You guys….what are you doing here?”

Seeing those familiar faces, Uzui raised an eyebrow.

–Kamado Tanjirou, Agatsuma Zenitsu and Hashibira Inosuke.

The three of them were members of the band – Modern Scruffy Democracy that Uzui was the leader of.

*

“So the three of you were not here for fun and you were just trying to solve the strange stories that were causing fear among your juniors with your own hands—is that how it is?”

When Rengoku asked as such, Tanjirou immediately represented the trio and obediently nodded his head, affirming the question. The boy who had an honest personality slanted his brows down and he seemed downhearted.

“Because my younger sister’s friends were all scared, so I thought we had to do something about it.”

So he discussed with his two friends and the two readily agreed to help.

“I will not lose to any youkai!! I will definitely win!”

Inosuke puffed out his chest and arrogantly snorted.

“Also, I’m the boss, so of course I can’t let my underlings get into danger.”

This guy had such pure thoughts.

Rengoku looked towards the last person and the boy quickly straightened his expression.

“I also want to protect the peace of the academy.”

“Yes, yes, yes. So? What are you really thinking?”

Uzui asked back immediately. Once Zenitsu heard the question, his eyes suddenly grew wide.

“Do I have to spell it out! If I settle these frightening strange stories with my own hands, I will definitely become popular! Then during valentine’s day next year, I’ll get chocolates!!”

Zenitsu’s nostrils flared and he said it all at one go. Then he came back to his senses and the blood drained from his face rapidly.

Uzui showed a smile of contempt.

“So you confessed on your own, didn’t you? Only this guy’s motive is different.”

“You’re despicable!! This is a leading question! An illegal confession!!”

“In what way was I leading you? You let it slip by yourself, idiot.”

Uzui impatiently looked away from Zenitsu who was throwing up a fuss.

“So? What do we do with these kids?”

Rengoku mumbled softly to himself while looking at the three. Tanjirou cowered, Inosuke arrogantly looked up with his chest puffed out while Zenitsu grabbed his head that had golden hair that was outstanding even in the dark and was saying softly: “No….it’s not like this.”

“Aside from Golden boy who has some impure motives, I acknowledge that you did this with the situation of the academy and other students in mind. However, no matter what the reason was, you all should not break  into the school at this kind of time on your own accord. I absolutely cannot agree with such actions.”

Rengoku used his authority as a teacher to admonish them.

“We didn’t break into the school on our own accord.”

Inosuke retorted while picking his ear. “Ah?” Uzui stared at Inosuke and Tanjirou defended his friend, stepping forward and continued the explanation:

“No. Actually, we know that we should not trespass illegally. So we discussed with Tomioka-sensei and asked him to accompany us. But he went to the toilet for a bit.”

Uzui laughed when he heard this. Never mind about Zenitsu, he never thought that even Inosuke and Tanjirou would say such nonsense. Too bad they clearly picked the wrong opponent.

“Oi oi oi, if you want to lie, at least make it more believable. Tomioka is obviously here—”

When Uzui finished speaking, he turned around to face the back but his colleague was nowhere to be seen.

“Tomioka?”

Was he still downstairs? Now that he thought about it, his complexion looked bad. Uzui was about to take a look downstairs when—

“You called?”

Tomioka Giyuu stepped out of the men’s toilet and responded coldly.

“You….eh? You were in the toilet?”

“Yes.”

“No, no, no, stop joking around. Weren’t you behind us all along?”

“As if.”

“No. You definitely were. We arranged to meet in front of the school gate at eleven at night….right?”

Uzui could not stand it and continued to speak with Tomioka, both of them at different wavelengths. He then turned to Rengoku, seeking support—however his friend just had a bewildered expression and said:

“What are you talking about? Uzui. Didn’t Tomioka say last night that he made prior plans today?”

“Hah?”

“I never expected it would be with students. Don’t be a stranger, Tomioka. If it’s like that, you should have said so.”

“….Sorry.”

Tomioka apologised softly.

“Yesterday, I was too preoccupied with eating braised salmon with radish.”

This monotonous tone of speaking that spared only a few words and an expression that made it difficult to read his thoughts as well as that flat expression that was like a Noh mask.

It was completely Tomioka Giyuu himself.

(Then….who was that guy we were patrolling the school with?)

“Uzui, you’re really strange today. Not only do you keep talking to yourself, you even suddenly spoke about Tomioka who wasn’t even around and said that there’s something off about him.”

(Talking to myself? Not around?)

“You look terrible, did you catch a cold? Tomioka, you agree right?”

“Yes, he does have a horrible complexion.”

(Now that I think about it, this guy….)

When they were patrolling the school, Rengoku had never chatted with Tomioka and never even uttered Tomioka’s name.

Kanae said this colleague of theirs could not see supernatural things.

And could not hear the voices of youkai.

So—

“Uzui-sensei….”

Kanae sounded guilty when she spoke:

“I thought that was just a harmless spirit that mimicked people so I observed it for a while…then I realized he had unadulterated hatred towards men with lovers. Sorry, actually that’s a vengeful spirit that would curse people to death after approaching people while taking on a familiar form.”

But I exorcised him just now! Kanae added on with a flower-like smile.

Uzui turned towards the window without thinking and was so freaked out he could not speak. His own reflection in the glass had sunken cheeks, an ashen face and the skin beneath his eyes had turned a dark purple.

Uzui suddenly felt a wave of vertigo and lost consciousness.

*

Afterwards, Uzui Tengen slept for two whole days.

Even though he recovered successfully under the wholehearted care of his three lovers, news of his sudden illness spread like wildfire among the students and his colleagues. Rengoku and Tomioka also got anxious and expressed that they felt he was acting weird then and Kanae even stealthily passed him a talisman.

On the other hand, among the students who snuck into the school at night, only Zenitsu was made to write a letter of reflection. However, he was just single minded in getting valentine’s day chocolates and one month later, he dragged Tanjirou into one of his secret plans. But that was a story for another day.

Just to mention, the biology classroom that had a rock salt embedded in it was now used as per normal. Perhaps it had the chance to become the new holy site for the academy—

In any case, Kimetsu Academy could be considered peaceful today.