“Accurately speaking, successful ritual is only one part of the process, the other part would depend on all of you.”

Maple glanced around the compartment which seemed as if nothing had happened at all and his eyebrows twitched in surprise, he thought that the “lower-ranked 1st demon” would immediately take advantage of his “disappearance”, but apparently, he had overestimated his guts.

But Maple did not care too much of the current situation, after all, if Enmu was undecided, then next it would face the encirclement and suppression from the “three little pillars”.

“Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, all of you properly hold on to this talisman, it can help you block any kind of attack once, when it is needed, all of you only need to chant 'activate' in your heart to use the talisman.”

Maple, placed the three talismans into each of their hand, although the effect of this talisman was not as exaggerated as Maple’s, but if Maple calculated the amount of damage buffer used on the talisman, in the hand of the “three little pillars” it could have a “specious’ result.

“Do not reject, your next task is very dangerous, this is your reward.”

Hearing Maple’s “notice”, Zenitsu’s gaze trembled for a moment.

However, when he saw the “talisman” in his hand, he seemed to have recalled something and gritted his teeth, and showed a look that said he was ready to risk his life.

“What an amazing talisman!”

Receiving Maple’s talisman, the wild Inosuke did not show any doubt, because his wild-beast-like instinct had immediately notified him of the huge help this “protection talisman” had on him.

“Mr. Feng, what do we need to do next?”

Tanjiro solemnly kept the protection talisman on his body, while he asked.

“I need the three of you to find that lower-ranked demon, and retrieve his pair of demon eyes and some demon blood, you can severely injure it, but do not kill it, I need this lower-ranked demon to complete the next ritual, senior Rengoku will be responsible for the safety of the civilian, whether this plan can succeed or not would depend on the three of you.”

“Do you mean? We should first cripple the lower-ranked demon?”

Tanjiro’s deep red eyes shrunk, since this was the first time that he had heard of such “strange” request, but seeing that Mr. Feng and Mr. Rengoku did not continue to explain, Tanjiro held down his own doubts, and nodded his head while replying seriously.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Feng, after this period of training, and with the addition of this powerful protection talisman, I still have the confidence!”

“Ri, right! Merely a lower-ranked demon, I, I can definitely help!”

“Feng, just look! The great me will definitely get the demon’s ‘spare part’ packaged and place them in front of you!”

Looking at the figure of the three little pillars walking towards the head of the train, Kyojuro gradually withdrew his gaze, laughed and looked at the silent Maple beside him.

“Haha! Mr. Feng, never thought that you are willing to part with such a precious life saving talisman to them, it seemed that I have been so used to judging people by their appearance, I’m so ashamed!”

“Judge by appearance?”

Although the one speaking did not mean anything, the one listening had some thoughts, Maple was truly attracted by this word said by Kyojuro and had some doubts.

According to his own observation, his own persona had been polished by himself for a very long time, and could be said to be a very successful “disguise”, which logically speaking should not bring about this kind of “outside is different from the inside” contradictory feel.

“Ahaha…how should I put it…”

Kyojuro scratched his head, and smile sheepishly, but still graciously admitted his own “misunderstanding”.

“Actually, it is because the first time I met Mr. Feng, I had a [cold] impression, but looking at it now, it seemed that it was only my own illusion!”

“A [cold] impression is it…”

Maple nodded noncommittally, but the thoughts in his heart had started to spin very fast.

“Although I know that Kyojuro has some special ability in regards to sensing emotion, this kind of first impression is still kind of cheating.”

He silently sighed in his heart, recalling the “changes” in himself during this period of time. Maple also understood why Kyojuro had this kind of ‘outside is different from the inside’ kind of [illusion].

After all, for a person who only had [despair], suddenly had an intention to [save] others due to an impulse, no matter how you put it, was it not still very abnormal?

But Maple understood, once he had adorned the persona, in some cases, other than an [impulse] as a variable, there were still a number of things to be considered.

Why did he want to wear this kind of “hypocritical persona”? Honestly speaking, in the end it was only so that he could assimilate into the normal world.

This was the thought that Maple had at the beginning.

These were the thoughts that birthed the “persona”. It was actually impossible to have so many “antisocial tendencies”, or alternatively speaking, he was continuously “transforming” in order to “assimilate”.

For example, a “pillar” of a demon slayer corps, a position that existed for the sake of “protection”, what would happen if it was suddenly taken over by a person whose nature was colder than the demons?

A person who only had [despair], even [death] was like his shadow, the things he played with in his hand was actually a crazy and taboo [soul].

Ha! Maple did not even need to think to know that if his “nature” was known, the result would not be as simple as being evicted from the demon slayer corps, even the demons would like to eradicate this “freak”, right?

Then it would become the first cooperation between the demon slayer corps and demons, right? Well, who knew?

But, other than this basic thing, and other factors that were only useful for survival, Maple actually had a vague guess…

Could it be, one day, his [persona], will become a prototype of his true emotion?

These kinds of thoughts were quite absurd, but it was still a problem that Maple considered seriously.

For no other reason but due to the fact that ever since his first trace of his emotion was born, Maple had vaguely observed that his own persona seemed to have some transformation that he had not understood.

This was not something “cliché” like “multiple personality disorder”, but more like…fitting?

It was like a douchebag who had disguised himself for a lifetime as a saint, and in the end when he had walked to the end of his life, he was astonished to find that even he himself did not realize whether he was a douchebag or a saint.

Maple’s “realization” was not without a reason, when he had just arrived in this world, the first time he noticed that by not wearing his persona, the digestion of his potion was affected, he already had this kind of feeling.

Instead of saying the persona helped him in digesting the potion, it could also be said that this action was mutual…

Sequence Potion also used his own energy to pry open the emotions associated with the persona, in an attempt to “pull” “them” out of Galan's cave.

[Potion] symbolized “strength”, [persona] symbolized “emotions”, they seemed to move parallelly forever, entangling each other in a [double helix], which then [surge] towards infinity.

And each role of the [sequence potion], every unified [impulse] from sensibility and [persona], which unfortunately seemed to be a solid step in this long-long journey.

“Until one day…that small stone will cover the whole ocean…”

Maple silently said a conjecture that might happen in the future, in his green eyes, the gaze became even more profound.

It was also due to this reason that Maple did not consider the emotion to [save] as an ignorable reference, but considered it as one of the stairs that could not be missing from his “staircase to the top”.

Implementing his [impulse] to [save], digest [despair] through the [death] of demons, this seemed to be the opportunity for Maple to completely absorb [murderer].

“Furthermore, in any case…I am still waiting for Tanjiro to show me the complete sun breathing and mark of the demon slayer, how could I let him escape easily?”

Maple chuckled in his heart.

“Perhaps, this can be said to be the ‘truest’ thought of my persona? Who knows?”

…

At the head of the train, a handsome “youth” from the beginning fell into a short silence, in the silent atmosphere, behind the youth there were several young men and women who were crawling on the floor, unable to utter a single sound.

“That young man with earrings should be the one lord Muzan wants to kill? If I kill him, I should be bestowed with more blood by lord Muzan, right?”

Enmu, whose appearance looked like a young woman, murmured, seemingly used his own blood demon art “dream manipulation”, to observe that black haired young man moving towards the front of the train…

Thinking of lord Muzan’s power that fascinated it, Enmu’s face blushed crazily, his voice was so thin that it was difficult to differentiate between male or female, which also made his words even more eerie.

“Then, lord Muzan, presumably you have seen this scene before me, let me think, let me think, I am going to offer you a beautiful killing scene!”

Suddenly, as if responding to Enmu’s words, there was a sudden sharp and painful cramp on its body, but Enmu’s mentality was becoming more hysterical.

“Ah…right, lord Muzan, I have stepped overboard, I should not have made unnecessary arrangements, it’s sufficient to just kill him directly. Right, lord Muzan, thank you for your teaching, this is what true ‘loyalty’ is!”

Enmu who had completely lost its basic “logic”, at this moment, had forgotten about the threat he felt from that “pillar”, and used its own “trump card” …

By becoming one with the train and completely killing everyone.

“Rip! Rip!”

Amidst the sound of tearing cloth, uncountable threads of blackish red blood and flesh suddenly shot out of Enmu’s body, like tree roots which ruthlessly plunged into the middle of the train compartment.

Just as the “parasitism” continued its integration process, Enmu’s human figure gradually submerged into a ferocious and twisted looking pile of flesh and blood while wantonly devouring the surrounding lives.

“Inosuke, help them!”

“Oohhh! Understood, look at this great-me! Second Fang – Slice!”

Fighting against the flesh and blood monster who had started to lose control, there was no need for Tanjiro to say anything, Inosuke had used his own beast breathing.

Two slashes containing ferocious strength crossed as it flashed towards the middle of the compartment, amidst the frenzied breathing, the uncountable flesh and blood tentacles holding the passengers were cut open.

“It’s you, you! That’s right, a young man with earrings, the one I want to kill is you!”

The destruction of the “tentacles” did not have the slightest effect on Enmu’s frenzy, amidst its confident and arrogant soliloquy, it did not care at all about the number of civilians that had been rescued by the few demon slayers, not to mention the number of people that had died because of it.

Tanjiro was the only target in its eyes.

[Blood demon art – sleep induction]

Along with the activation of the blood demon art, the flesh and blood that had covered the whole compartment seemed to have also received some kind of stimulation, starting to squirm painfully and sinisterly.

“It, it, who knows what the heck it is doing!”

Seeing the frenzied scene that made him “lose” himself, Zenitsu almost could not make it anymore, a strong nauseous feeling started to rise to his throat, which was forcefully suppressed by the operating thunder breathing.

At the next moment, the surging flesh and blood gave the answer…

Eyes, innumerable demon eyes that opened itself on the flesh and blood.

[Sleep, sleep]

The moment they slightly looked at the eyes, a kind of hypnotic feel attacked Tanjiro and Zenitsu’s mind, seemingly about to fall to the ground and at the mercy of Enmu.

“Almost there, almost there!”

Seeing that Tanjiro had almost hypnotized and dropped to the ground, Enmu almost could not hold back its excitement, immediately prepared itself to allow lord Muzan to see everything using its ‘eyes’.

But it was this action that allowed Inosuke, who had beastial instinct, to noticed a flaw.

[Beast breathing 8th form – explosive rush]

Inosuke who was wearing a head mask had unknowingly escaped from the hypnotism art. He just put all his focus on the pair of demon eyes with “lower-ranked 1st” symbol, his heart told him that they were the “things” Feng wanted.

In the next moment, Inosuke unhesitatingly released an attack of mutual destruction.

“Wuoooo!”

Inosuke released a sound of war cry, the forceful high speed rush not only attracted Enmu’s attention, it even awoken Nezuko who was sleeping in the compartment.

“Wu?”