The woman opened her mouth wide, and a thick torrent of smoke billowed out, completely engulfing the warehouse. This fog didn't just strip her enemies of their sight; it granted her a massive boost to her own speed and power, allowing her to close in for a silent assassination.
"Die!"
She ghosted behind Goku, her fingernails lengthening until they were harder than steel, and lunged toward his heart. But just as her claws were about to pierce his skin, Goku vanished.
A moment later, his voice drifted from behind *her*.
"Your speed went up a bit, but you're still pretty weak."
To Goku, her current speed was certainly faster than before, but it was only about on par with Yamcha back when he first entered the World Martial Arts Tournament.
As for the smoke blocking his vision? It was useless. Not only could he pinpoint her location by sensing her ki, but even without that, his sharp hearing and sense of smell made tracking her in the fog a simple task.
"How could you possibly find me?!"
The demon spun around, a sinking feeling of dread washing over her. She prepared to bolt, but Goku had already raised a hand, aiming it directly at her.
"Ki Blast!"
A powerful wave of energy erupted from his palm, flooding the warehouse. When the blinding light faded, the demon had completely vanished from the face of the earth.
"I guess if you destroy the whole body at once, it can't grow back," Goku noted.
The Ki Blast was a simplified version of the Kamehameha he had been refining over the last year. While the full version required two hands and a longer charge, this single-handed variant could be fired instantly, even if its destructive power was significantly lower.
"Better get this baby back to its mom."
Cradling the crying infant, Goku walked out of the warehouse through the massive hole his blast had punched in the wall. He chose not to use *Apparition* to return. The sensation of being squeezed through a rubber tube was uncomfortable for adults; he worried the spatial pressure might hurt such a fragile baby.
"Goku!"
Mita came sprinting toward him from the distance. After Goku had disappeared, Mita had leaped onto the rooftops to search the town. Hearing the explosion to the west, he had rushed over, arriving just in time to see Goku emerging with the child.
"The baby... is it...?"
"The one that lady was looking for," Goku explained. "I found the demon and killed it. The baby is safe; he hadn't been eaten yet."
"You found and killed it?!" Mita's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
How could he kill a demon without a Nichirin Sword? But as Mita looked at the jagged, smoldering hole in the warehouse wall, a theory formed in his mind. 'Goku has no sword, so he must have used his monstrous strength to knock the demon out of the building and into the sunlight.'
It made sense. If the child-thief was just a common demon, Goku's strength was more than enough to physically overpower it. Still, the sheer force required to blast a hole that size through a wall suggested Goku was even stronger than he had initially guessed.
"How did you find it? And how did you just... disappear earlier?" Mita asked as he took the baby into his arms, and they began walking back toward the town center.
Goku didn't see any reason to hide it. "I sensed her presence, and then I just moved there instantly..."
"It was a demon that could use Blood Demon Art?!" Mita broke into a cold sweat.
Demons capable of Blood Demon Arts were the elites. If he had come alone to face such a creature, he likely wouldn't be walking back tonight. His gaze toward Goku became even more fervent.
This boy wasn't just a physical freak of nature; he had high-level sensory abilities and a technique that looked exactly like the teleportation arts used by the most powerful demons.
Mita was convinced: if he could get Goku to the headquarters for proper training, the boy would become the most powerful Hashira in history.
...
After returning the infant to the hysterical, grateful mother, Mita led Goku out of the town. They hadn't gone far before a pitch-black crow fluttered down and landed on Mita's shoulder.
"Northeast! Northeast! Mount Natagumo! Mount Natagumo! Emergency mission! Emergency mission!"
"An emergency mission..." Mita's face darkened with concern. "Goku, it looks like we can't head to headquarters just yet. We're being diverted to Mount Natagumo."
Normally, a slayer gets a period of rest after a kill. Fighting demons is a life-or-death struggle that drains the spirit and body. But for a Kasugai Crow to scream for an "Emergency Mission" immediately after a success meant something catastrophic was happening. The Corps was likely throwing every available slayer in the vicinity into the fray.
"Let's go to Mount Natagumo, then," Goku nodded.
After hearing more about the demons from Mita, he wasn't in such a rush to reach the headquarters anymore. If even the "Hashira" could be killed by demons, it meant there were genuine masters among the monsters. Traveling with Mita seemed like a direct path to a good fight.
"But first, food! I need energy to fight!"
Goku insisted. Mita agreed; going into a meat grinder like Mount Natagumo on an empty stomach was a death sentence. They found the nearest tavern and fueled up. During lunch, Mita's understanding of Goku was redefined once again—it turned out forty bowls of ramen wasn't even close to the boy's limit.
...
As night fell, two figures stood at the base of Mount Natagumo.
"I have a really bad feeling about this," Mita whispered, staring into the oppressive, pitch-black woods. A primal fear of death was clawing at his chest. His instincts screamed that something terrifying was lurking in those trees.
Goku, however, felt the exact opposite. He took a deep breath, a small grin forming on his face.
"I can smell it... the scent of someone really strong."
***
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