Swish!!

The sound of Tsukiko running through the bushes echoed in the night. 

There was only about 4 hours till sunrise so she didn’t have much time to waste. 

During her planning phase, the idea of confronting or even killing her chasers crossed her mind but thinking about it more deeply, doing such a thing might earn her the ire of the monster know as Ginryu who might end up doing something much worse to her.

She was being chased by 2 animals and 2 newly turned beast-looking things, in a straight-up fight she wouldn’t lose. 

She was right, she could easily take on both Inuchiyo and Goemon even after their current transformation. 

Both Inuchiyo and Goemon were newly turned after all, but her mistake would be thinking that Yin and Yang were the same. 

The cubs were quite strong and wouldn’t lose to almost any demons, if there was a power comparison to Muzan’s demons. 

The cubs would be around the power level of an upper moon. 

Tsukiko wasn’t an upper moon much less even a lower one; her fate was sealed from the beginning. 

The only reason that she was still alive was that the cubs were instructed to let Inuchiyo and Goemon enjoy the thrill of the hunt for the first few hours so they could adapt to their past and current abilities. 

If it seemed like they couldn’t beat Tsukiko, then the cubs would end her themselves. 

Not too far from Tsukiko, Inuchiyo was trailing behind tracking any traces of her that she could find. 

Her senses were enhanced due to the transformation she had undergone, the influx of information assaulting her mind was a totally new experience and had an exhilarating feeling. 

The thought of hunting something that was fleeing seemed to trigger some kind of predatory instinct within her. 

The only problem she was currently encountering was her spear. 

Her claws seemed to get in the way of wielding it, additionally she couldn’t run well due to holding it. 

It hadn’t yet sunk into her that her claws were also good weapons. 

“Why don’t you strap the spear on your back with some cloth?” Goemon suggested while stuttering, as she suddenly appeared beside Inuchiyo. 

Goemon had gotten used to utilizing her new abilities more quickly than Inuchiyo. 

She had been jumping  from tree to tree while testing out some of her Ninjutsu techniques with her new body. 

She felt incredibly light yet incredibly strong, her claws could easily be hook onto the tree surfaces and her vision felt so clear in the night. 

She also felt a variety of things that she couldn't describe.

“Hmmm,” Inuchiyo briefly replied, taking Goemon’s advice. 

She strapped her spear to her back with a piece of cloth. 

With the spear secured, she crouched low and began accelerating at an incredible speed. 

Goemon jumped back onto the trees and began catching up. 

Yin and Yang, on the other hand, had been on Tsukiko’s trail since she began running. 

Yin had been keeping tabs on the location of Inuchiyo and Goemon. 

She had realized that both of them would take some time to begin using the information that their newly enhanced senses brought them. 

To help them out she would often attack Tsukiko from time to time, leaving a trail of blood for Inuchiyo and Goemon to follow. 

Yang, on the other hand, just lazily followed behind; he was busy thinking about how to mess with Tora when he returned. 

Tsukiko, who was being chased, had begun freaking out. 

The cubs that she had dismissed as the weakest of her pursuers were dealing some major damage to her both physically and mentally. 

They would suddenly transform into menacingly large beasts and attack her, usually taking an arm, leg, or any body part they could reach except her head. 

They didn’t pin her down or anything else, which meant that she still hadn’t lost the game of being caught. 

This put a large mental strain on her as she was not only basically being eaten alive but being made a fool of. 

Even when she increased her speed the Cubs somehow still found and caught up to her. 

The game she thought was going to be an easy win wasn’t going according to what she envisioned. 

With the pressure being put on her, Tsukiko suddenly stopped running; she had reached the conclusion that she wouldn’t live anyway. 

At the rate things were going, she would either run out of energy to regenerate herself or die at the upcoming sunrise. 

A thought had creeped into her mind, If she wasn’t going to live anyway, then wasn’t it better to fight back and take out at least one of her pursuers. 

She had been running for almost 3 hours now and was fed up, she knew that she couldn’t beat the monsters disguised as cute cubs, but the newly turned Inuchiyo and Goemon were a prime target. 

Yin and Yang were a bit perplexed at why the demon suddenly stopped but did nothing. 

This whole game was just training for Inuchiyo and Goemon so they couldn’t bring it to an end; their only option was to wait for both Inuchiyo and Goemon to catch up. 

Tsukiko was a bit stunned at why the cubs weren’t doing anything to her, but she soon came to realize their objective. 

‘No wonder that man didn’t follow, all this is for those girls. If so, then staying here to kill them is the right choice,’ Tsukiko reasoned. 

Several minutes later, Inuchiyo and Goemon arrived where the cubs and Tsukiko awaited them. 

Upon seeing both of the girls, Tsukiko immediately dashed towards Inuchiyo first. 

If it was the former Inuchiyo, she wouldn’t have been able to react to the attack, but with her senses enhanced, she could somewhat follow Tsukiko’s movements even if barely and blocked with her spear. 

The speed of Tsukiko wasn’t normal either as this was her blood art. 

She could control the speed at which her body moved to a certain extent.

Swoosh! 

Goemon, upon witnessing Inuchiyo under attack, swiftly retaliated by hurling a barrage of shurikens with incredible speed towards Tsukiko. 

Sensing the imminent danger, Tsukiko promptly distanced herself from Inuchiyo. 

She was taken aback by the rapid development of the girls who had once been her prey. 

Ordinarily, she could have easily withstood such an attack, but the incessant harassment by Yin and Yang had left her weakened and exhausted, unable to spare energy for constant regeneration. 

All she had remaining, she resolved to use to eliminate at least one of the girls. 

Feeling the intense bloodlust emanating from Tsukiko, Inuchiyo repositioned herself, assuming a defensive posture, while Goemon, perched above in the trees, stood vigilant, prepared to intervene when needed. 

A tense silence enveloped them as they engaged in a fierce standoff, the air thick with anticipation and foreboding.