After burying the swordsman, Chiba Yo continued to search Mount Fujikasane with Zenitsu Agatsuma.
"Can you hear any other demons nearby?" Chiba Yo asked Zenitsu Agatsuma as he walked.
From the previous incident, he had learned that Zenitsu Agatsuma possessed extraordinary hearing, sometimes even being able to distinguish demons by sound.
Zenitsu Agatsuma shook his head upon hearing this.
Just then, a swordsman suddenly ran out of the jungle ahead, looking back nervously from time to time.
"Get out of the way!"
Seeing Chiba Yo and Zenitsu Agatsuma, the swordsman shouted, then pushed them aside and continued running forward.
As the swordsman ran past, Chiba Yo heard him muttering, "How can a demon that's eaten fifty people appear? How can we possibly deal with such a guy!"
"Fifty… fifty people! Yo, you're not still thinking of fighting this demon, are you? This is a demon that's eaten fifty people, it's not like the ones that only ate two or three people before. Its strength must be terrifying, we should stay far away from here! Huh!"
Zenitsu Agatsuma naturally heard the swordsman's words, and his face instantly showed a look of horror as he tried to persuade Chiba Yo.
"Let's go," Chiba Yo said, then ran towards the direction the swordsman had just fled, completely ignoring Zenitsu Agatsuma's pleas.
"Ah—I knew it. Wait for me, Yo!" Zenitsu Agatsuma grabbed his hair and yelled, but in the end, he still followed.
Passing through the dense trees, Chiba Yo only saw a giant green hand turning to ash. From the size of this hand, one could tell how terrifying the demon's physique was.
It's already been eliminated, that young man must have done it.
Chiba Yo stopped, looking at the red-haired young man by the giant hand, who was sheathing his nichirin blade.
However, to Chiba Yo's surprise, the red-haired young man actually walked over and grasped the giant hand, then closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the back of the giant hand, as if in prayer.
"Hey, what are you doing? Sympathizing with a demon?" Chiba Yo felt a bit angry at the scene before him. Demons had harmed so many people, destroyed so many families; what was there to sympathize with such creatures?
After hearing Chiba Yo's voice, the red-haired young man turned his head. Chiba Yo saw the wound on his forehead and the compassionate expression on his face.
"These demons were once human too," Tanjirou Kamado said to Chiba Yo.
At this moment, the last remaining hand of the Hand Demon had also completely turned to ash.
"But after they became demons, they harmed countless people and destroyed countless families. The demon you just sympathized with must have eaten many people, right?" Chiba Yo still couldn't understand the young man's actions.
"I know, so I won't hesitate when I slay it. But they might not have become demons willingly; they are also victims. I smelled a scent of sadness on it," Tanjirou Kamado explained to Chiba Yo.
Tanjirou Kamado's words did not gain Chiba Yo's agreement. He also knew from Kyoujurou that all demons were created by a demon progenitor named Kibutsuji Muzan. However, he believed that as long as these demons ate people, they were not innocent and deserved to go to hell.
His own experiences also made it impossible for him to feel any sympathy for demons.
"I can't understand," Chiba Yo shook his head and said.
Although he didn't agree with Tanjirou Kamado sympathizing with demons, the other party had indeed slain the demon, so he couldn't say much more.
"Gurgle~"
An untimely sound came from beside them, and at the same time, the sky began to lighten.
"Yo, I'm so hungry. Let's go find something to eat," Zenitsu Agatsuma, who was beside him, pulled Chiba Yo's sleeve and said weakly.
Chiba Yo looked up at the gradually brightening sky and replied, "Alright, after dawn, the demons should all be hiding, and we can't continue hunting."
Just as Chiba Yo was about to go find some food with Zenitsu Agatsuma, a voice from behind called out to them.
"Um… if you don't mind, I have a few flatbreads here. Let's eat together."
Chiba Yo turned around. The red-haired young man from before took out a few flatbreads from his embrace and offered them with a smile.
"Really? Thank you so much!"
Upon seeing the flatbreads in Tanjirou Kamado's hand, Zenitsu Agatsuma immediately rushed to him, grabbed a flatbread, and started gnawing on it, chattering as he ate, "Last night, the two of us walked all night without a single break. I was almost starving to death."
"That must have been tough. If it's not enough, I have more here," the red-haired young man chimed in with a smile.
Then he picked up another flatbread and handed it to Chiba Yo.
"Huh? Oh, thank you." Chiba Yo haphazardly took the flatbread, momentarily unsure what to say.
Looking at the flatbread in his hand, and then at Tanjirou Kamado's smiling face, Chiba Yo's previous dissatisfaction with Tanjirou Kamado's actions instantly vanished.
'What a gentle person,' Chiba Yo thought to himself.
Zenitsu Agatsuma: "What's your name?"
Tanjirou Kamado: "Tanjirou Kamado. And you?"
Zenitsu Agatsuma: "My name is Zenitsu Agatsuma, and this is my new friend, Chiba Yo."
Chiba Yo: "Let me bandage the wound on your forehead for you."
Tanjirou Kamado: "Thank you."
…
The three sat together, eating flatbreads and chatting, their friendship quickly warming up.
For the next six days, Chiba Yo and his two companions acted together. With Zenitsu Agatsuma's hearing and Tanjirou Kamado's sense of smell, Chiba Yo's demon hunting speed increased significantly. However, while hunting, he noticed that Tanjirou Kamado would always ask the demons how to turn back into humans.
Although Chiba Yo had questions about this, he did not ask Tanjirou Kamado.
During this period, they also rescued many swordsmen participating in this Final Selection. By the fifth day, Chiba Yo had already cleared all the demons on Mount Fujikasane. For the next two nights, they didn't encounter a single demon.
The morning of the Final Selection's end
Chiba Yo and his two companions walked out of the central area of Mount Fujikasane and returned to the platform where they had started.
"Only a little more than half the people left…" Looking at the significantly reduced number of people compared to when they arrived, Chiba Yo's mood became a bit heavy.
He had tried his best to find and hunt demons quickly, but sometimes he still couldn't make it in time. Most swordsmen were still afraid of demons, which prevented them from fully utilizing their strength, and Mount Fujikasane was so vast that Chiba Yo truly felt overwhelmed.
However, what he didn't know was that having so many people left in the Final Selection was already an extremely incredible result.
"Welcome back, everyone."
"Congratulations on your safe return, everyone."
The two children still stood before the torii gate, congratulating the surviving swordsmen.