Since this system task wasn't particularly urgent in terms of time, Horitake spent several days traveling at a leisurely pace while carrying Nezuko on his back, gradually drawing closer to Fujikasane Mountain.
There was no need to head straight to Fujikasane Mountain itself. The system had clearly stated that the incident this time wasn't happening during the Final Selection on the mountain, but after the Final Selection had ended.
Horitake chose to stop at a certain spot: a road that everyone had to pass through.
Whether it was Zenitsu, Yaeko Momoyama, or Tanjiro returning to Sagiri Mountain, they would all have to take this path.
So Horitake decided to wait here. Perhaps he would encounter Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Yaeko—the three little ones—or perhaps he would run into the trouble heading their way.
Either way, whatever came next, all he needed to do was wait patiently.
And so, Horitake and Nezuko settled down calmly on this inevitable route.
During the day, there was nothing much to do. Nezuko stayed hidden inside the box the whole time, and nothing happened at all. It was honestly pretty boring.
At night, though, he had to stay alert. That was when Nezuko would come out of the box to get some fresh air, and she would happily snuggle up close to Horitake.
These rare moments of spending time together with Nezuko were something Horitake treasured deeply.
As always: Nezuko was just too cute. Not only was her appearance adorable, her expressions were adorable, her reactions were adorable—every little gesture and mannerism she had was unbearably cute.
Especially when Horitake teased her—that was when she was the cutest!
Like right now, for example.
At this moment, Horitake was holding a single strawberry, using it to tempt Nezuko.
These strawberries had been bought earlier that day when he passed through a small market town. He got them from a fruit vendor. Fresh strawberries in this era were ridiculously expensive—he'd spent quite a bit.
But you get what you pay for. These were pure, natural, pollution-free strawberries, incredibly fresh.
Each one was plump and full, their color a vivid, glossy red that practically dripped with ripeness.
Faced with strawberries this fresh, any normal girl would be unable to resist.
With that thought in mind, Horitake picked up one of them and began luring Nezuko, teasing her.
He held the strawberry right in front of Nezuko's nose—not only tempting her with the scent and the alluring color, but also with his words:
"Nezuko, Nezuko~ Come take a look. Look how beautiful this strawberry is, how fragrant and sweet it smells. The color is just perfect—no one can resist it! It looks so delicious! Don't you want to try it, Nezuko? Don't you really want to give it a taste?"
Even though Horitake's words were full of temptation, and the strawberry truly looked mouthwatering, it clearly held little appeal for Nezuko.
She wrinkled her little nose and sniffed at it, catching the sweet, aromatic scent of the strawberry.
But right after, she furrowed her brows.
That reaction left Horitake deeply disappointed.
Could it really be that demons were completely unable to eat human food?
Well… yeah, that seemed to be the case.
Even though the strawberry looked so gorgeous and tasted so sweet and fragrant, to a demon it apparently had an indescribable, unpleasant flavor.
Over these past few days of traveling together, Horitake had already noticed that the current Nezuko truly couldn't eat human food. At most, she could drink some clean water.
As for recovering her strength, she relied entirely on regular sleep.
When you really thought about it, the whole thing didn't make any sense.
No energy intake, no consumption of any material substance—barely even drinking water—yet she could recover her stamina just by sleeping? That completely violated the law of conservation of mass-energy, didn't it!?
Well, fine. In this world, what things actually followed the law of conservation of mass-energy anyway? Nothing here was scientific, nothing was truly magical either. Take it too seriously and you lose.
Musing over these pointless thoughts, Horitake helplessly popped the strawberry into his own mouth.
Mmm—juicy, fragrant, sweet. Completely natural and pesticide-free. Delicious.
Too bad Nezuko couldn't enjoy it…
Nezuko, on the other hand, clearly had no interest in that "enjoyment."
She watched Horitake eat the strawberry with furrowed brows, wearing an adorably puzzled expression as if she couldn't figure it out at all.
She was probably thinking something like: This smells so awful? And this is what humans eat!?
Exactly—it wasn't something demons ate. It was human food.
While Nezuko was still in the middle of her confusion, suddenly she sensed something. A powerful feeling of blood connection, of deep intimacy—it was unmistakable!
Nezuko grew excited. In an instant she shot to her feet, left Horitake and the campfire behind, and happily dashed off toward the road in the distance.
Nezuko's sudden reaction caught Horitake completely off guard.
What had she noticed? Why was she running over there so happily?
Could there be a demon or some danger over there?
No, no—that couldn't be. If there was a demon or danger, she definitely wouldn't run straight toward it so eagerly. She wouldn't look this joyful and excited.
The only explanation was that Tanjiro must have arrived.
Horitake quietly calculated the timing in his head. These past couple of days were roughly when the Final Selection would be ending. Fujikasane Mountain wasn't far from here, and after finishing the Selection, Tanjiro and the others would head straight in this direction…
Yeah, the timing actually lined up pretty well.
Just to be sure, Horitake even briefly activated his Spirit Vision and used its partial far-sight ability to observe the distance.
From afar, he could see three figures on the road ahead. Sure enough—it was Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Yaeko, the three little ones.
Now that he'd confirmed it was them, there was no issue.
But as Horitake watched Nezuko running farther and farther away with both arms raised, joyfully sprinting toward them, an involuntary pang of sourness rose in his chest.
As expected, in Nezuko's heart, he couldn't compare to Tanjiro.
The moment she sensed her brother coming, Nezuko immediately abandoned him and ran straight to Tanjiro.
Although he had already anticipated something like this, when it actually happened, Horitake still felt a little uncomfortable. His heart still felt a bit sour.
Nezuko, oh Nezuko… After all the days I've taken care of you, you don't feel even a tiny bit reluctant to leave me?
Feeling a complicated mix of emotions that was hard to put into words, Horitake simply decided not to follow. He stayed seated by the roadside, idly poking at the campfire in front of him, waiting calmly.
There was no rush anyway. Nezuko and those three little ones would definitely come over eventually. What was the point of going over there? To intrude on such a touching brother-sister reunion? To play the third wheel?
Horitake thought with a touch of resentment.
Meanwhile, on the other side—as Nezuko ran quickly closer and closer—Tanjiro also sensed her presence.
Just as Horitake had predicted, during the Final Selection, Tanjiro had met Zenitsu and Yaeko.
Since all three of them knew Horitake and had a good relationship with him, they naturally got along well and became quite close friends.
Following Horitake's earlier instructions, they hadn't grouped up together during the Selection itself.
But after all three successfully passed the Final Selection, they decided to travel together as a group.
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