Sukuna naturally paid no mind to the hand demon's rage. He casually swung his Nichirin Blade, severing the demon's attempts to regenerate its arms, while simultaneously contemplating how to continue preparing the Bath.
Although he had spent a considerable amount of time that night gathering the demons on Fujikasane Mountain, he realized there was a significant discrepancy between what he had meant by many and what Urokodaki had understood.
Sukuna considered the possibility that Urokodaki had lied to him. But under those circumstances, even if Fujikasane Mountain didn't have the most demons, it wouldn't have deviated too far from Urokodaki's understanding.
To be fair, the number of demons here did qualify as many but it was still far from the actual quantity he needed.
Being in the mountains now, he couldn't find the sealed, concrete rooms of the modern era. A portion of the demons' blood would naturally seep directly into the ground.
Accounting for such losses during preparation, the required number of demons increased even further.
Sukuna sighed silently. With Uraume gone, he had to handle all these tedious matters himself. What a hassle.
But it wasn't just the losses. Even after being whittled into the shape of a log with their very lives at stake, these demons still had a strong will to escape, despite the insurmountable gap in strength between them and Sukuna.
While Sukuna was dealing with the hand demon, one of the demons in the group used its body's ability to grow a blade at its shoulder and decapitated itself.
By temporarily abandoning that irreparable, burdensome body, it quickly grew legs beneath its head and tried to flee.
Sukuna's response was not to turn around. He casually fired a slash that bisected and killed it.
That slash was rather large. Besides killing that demon, it also caught another demon standing closest to it.
That demon, ignoring its own disemboweled body, immediately cried out.
"He ran on his own! I didn't want to! P-Please spare me!"
Accompanying that demon's voice was the sound of burning branches falling from above, also severed by Sukuna.
Prompted by the demon's pleas and having just witnessed other demons die horribly before them, the trembling demons all began begging for mercy at once.
Sukuna, having concluded that the Bath could no longer be completed, found the noise annoying. He simply raised his hand and fired several slashes, killing all the demons outright. Blood, flesh, and chunks of organs splattered everywhere.
After all, he didn't have the patience to drag these things to another location with many demons.
Having killed those demons, Sukuna turned his attention back to the slightly stronger hand demon before him.
The hand demon watched in shock at what had just happened. Those demons had been killed by slashes he couldn't even see. He shouted excitedly at Sukuna.
"You are a demon after all, aren't you?! Why are you pretending to be a swordsman with that sword?!"
Sukuna scoffed and swung his Nichirin Blade, dismantling the hand demon.
"An ignorant creature. Just like those swordsmen. Does only a demon have the right to be strong? Pathetic."
With the exquisite blade skill of a butcher, Sukuna carved away the hand demon's flesh piece by piece.
He made the demon die in the most painful way possible. Blood and shredded flesh sprayed everywhere.
Watching the demon's skeleton gradually vanish, it was just as Sukuna had thought. Even the stronger individual that had eaten fifty people was, at its core, an enhancement built upon a human frame.
Remove the mutated structures, and the skeleton was simply a human skeleton, larger than average.
Compared to Satoru gojo, this world was far too boring for Sukuna.
But speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Just when Sukuna was thinking toke a break, another man with a sword appears.
Sukuna slowly turned his head toward the figure standing in the distance with a sword.
That head of hair, red mixed with yellow, seemed to burn like flames against the surrounding fire. Even the Nichirin Blade in his hand appeared red.
The newcomer was none other than the Hashira closest to Fujikasane Mountain at the time, the Flame Hashira who had been summoned: Kyojuro Rengoku.
Kyojuro Rengoku looked at Sukuna's bloodstained face illuminated by the firelight, his expression grave.
He had arrived after hearing the pleas of those demons. But by the time Rengoku reached the scene, he only saw Sukuna wielding his Nichirin Blade, dismantling the hand demon.
At first, Rengoku thought someone else might be killing demons, but seeing Sukuna's attire, he dismissed that idea. Then a new question arose. If this person was not a Demon Slayer Corps swordsman, why was he holding a Nichirin Blade and killing demons?
"At this hour, on Fujikasane Mountain... you're the one who killed Giyu, aren't you?"
Rengoku tightened his grip on his Nichirin Blade.
Having found a new toy, Sukuna's gaze swept over Rengoku as he answered calmly.
"I don't know who you're talking about. But if it was some brat wearing clothes similar to yours, then yes, I probably killed him."
After confirming Sukuna's identity, even with a fight imminent, Rengoku couldn't help but ask.
"I don't understand. If you set fire to the wisteria to rescue your comrades, why did you kill that demon with a Nichirin Blade?"
Sukuna scratched his hair in mild exasperation and muttered to himself.
"I set the fire because those flowers were in the way. Honestly, does everyone mistake me for a demon?"
Though he wouldn't fully trust a demon's words, Sukuna's denial of being a demon still caught Rengoku's attention.
He doesn't consider himself a demon? Or he doesn't see himself as an ordinary demon?
If he could kill Giyu, could he be an Upper Moon?
But there were no numbers in his eyes. Were they hidden?
Rather than a sense of overwhelming pressure, Sukuna gave Rengoku a peculiar sense of looseness, as if Sukuna didn't regard him as an equal enemy at all.
"Flame Breathing, Fifth Form: Flame Tiger."
Facing such an enemy, Rengoku chose to strike first.
His Nichirin Blade burst into fierce flames, taking the shape of a tiger that roared as it charged at Sukuna.
Seeing Rengoku use Flame Breathing, Sukuna found it quite fitting for the occasion. A look of pleasure appeared on his face.
"Oh, after water, fire? very Interesting~"
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