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Chapter 20: An Improvised Zetsu X Dohihara's Last Stand
🕑 Added 2025-10-19 10:28:12 +0000 UTCChapter 20: An Improvised Zetsu X Dohihara's Last Stand
A sigh cut through the tense air.
The demon's senses screamed danger. It whipped its head around. The boy with the sun-patterned earrings had appeared out of nowhere, perched silently on its back.
"Friend," Roy's voice was calm, conversational. "Could you do me a favor and let him go? My brother might be a bit of an idiot, but he's good-hearted. If you kill him, the meat will spoil, you know?"
When did he get there?! Why didn't I sense him?! Dohihara's mind reeled.
In his human life, he'd been a chef. Years in the kitchen had honed his sense of smell to a razor's edge. After being turned into a demon, that sense had been magnified tenfold. He could track prey not just by their physical scent, but by the unique aroma of their life force—their aura.
But tonight, his nose had failed him completely.
"You... you have no scent," Dohihara rasped, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Are you even human?!" He swiped a clawed hand back at Roy.
A gust of wind carrying the nauseating stench of old blood washed over Roy's face. He simply leaned to the side, sliding down the demon's arm as if it were a pole. In one fluid motion, he grabbed Tanjiro by the collar and lifted him from the ground.
"Cough, hack, cough..." Freed, Tanjiro clutched his throat, gasping for air. His face was pale, and he couldn't bring himself to look at Roy, his heart sinking with shame.
So useless. In the end, Bro still had to save me.
Tanjiro, when are you going to get stronger?
With a flick of his foot, Roy scooped up the axe Tanjiro had dropped. Pretending not to notice his brother's despair, he shoved the weapon back into his hands. "Continue."
Tanjiro stared. "Huh?"
Before he could process it, another swift kick to the rear sent him stumbling forward, back towards the demon.
"You wanted this fight," Roy's voice echoed in the silent shrine. "So you're going to be the one to finish it."
The words were like nails on a chalkboard to Dohihara. He was no fool. Years of "cultivating" this territory, so close to the demon slayers on Sagiri Mountain, had taught him one thing: cunning. His initial clash with Tanjiro had told him everything he needed to know. The hot-headed kid with the axe was not the threat. The silent one behind him was.
He focused ninety percent of his attention on Roy. With a burst of speed, he leaped directly over Tanjiro's head, his claws aimed straight for Roy's face.
Roy slid to the side, the attack missing by an inch.
Dohihara twisted in mid-air, transitioning into a vicious side-kick aimed at Roy's head. But Roy simply arched his back in a smooth, almost lazy motion, and the blow whistled harmlessly over him.
Damn it! I can't predict his movements! Why... why does he have no scent?!
The demon was completely baffled. Two attacks, two effortless dodges. He leaped back, putting distance between himself and the brothers just as Tanjiro's retaliatory axe swing sliced through the air where he'd been.
Narrator's Note: Zetsu is the Nen technique of shutting off one's aura flow, effectively erasing one's presence.
Inspired by the "Water Walking" exercise from Zzigg's notes, Roy had an idea. By imagining his Nen not as a platform, but as a thin, flexible film, he could use it to manually seal his own Aura Nodes. It wasn't true Zetsu, but it cut off the outward flow of his aura and, by extension, his "scent."
It was a brilliant, if imperfect, improvisation.
"Bro... I can barely smell you either," Tanjiro whispered, his own super-sensitive nose picking up on the strangeness. He stepped back beside Roy, sniffing the air. "No... there's still a scent, but it's very, very faint..."
As expected of the boy with a nose like a bloodhound. He was right. Roy hadn't truly mastered Zetsu. He wasn't like Gon, who had grown up in nature and learned to suppress his presence instinctively. This was a crude imitation, a thin membrane of aura clinging to his skin. It wasn't a perfect seal, and it still leaked a trace amount of his presence—a trace easily masked by the overwhelming stench of blood in the shrine.
"Is this really the time to be distracted?" Roy's voice was sharp. Two flames of Nen ignited in his pupils as he activated Gyo, seeing the demon launch another attack. "To your right."
He grabbed Tanjiro's shoulder and pulled. As Tanjiro was yanked aside, he swung his axe on pure instinct, a wide, horizontal arc of steel.
SLASH!
The blade tore through the night, slicing deep into the demon's abdomen. Blood and entrails spilled onto the floor. Dohihara shrieked and leaped back again, his eyes blazing with pure hatred for Roy.
Damn it! I'll never get to him with this other one in the way! Do I have to abandon my temple?
He had heard that the great master, Muzan, had his own magnificent domain, the Infinite Castle. This shrine was Dohihara's temple, his dining hall, the foundation of his existence. He would not give it up.
Which meant there was only one path left.
"This is why humans are such disgusting creatures," Dohihara snarled, his wounds already beginning to heal. "Always using the weak as shields. I was an honest man once, you know. Until my boss made a mistake and framed me for it. So I ate him!"
He pointed a bloody finger at Roy, his voice dripping with scorn. "And you! Hiding behind your little brother! Are you a coward? Don't you dare face me one-on-one?"
Is Bro... being called a coward? Tanjiro thought, stealing a glance at him. By a demon?
Roy's expression was unreadable. He remained completely unmoved by the taunt. As long as the system panel didn't tell him this fight would increase his Combat Experience, he had absolutely no reason to get involved.
Besides...
"Friend," Roy said, his voice calm and serious. "You shouldn't judge a book by its cover. He may look like an idiot... but in my eyes, my brother is very strong."
"BRO!" A fire ignited in Tanjiro's soul. He raised his axe, two jets of steam blasting from his nostrils.
