Demon Slayer: Upper 0 seems to be a waste

Chapter 294 Detonation

What kind of existence is humanity, really?

Lin Guang asked himself.

What kind of beings are they exactly?

No one answered him.

Perhaps this is a question he will need to ponder for the rest of his life.

he thinks.

Or perhaps even then, he wouldn't get an answer.

But he still couldn't help being curious.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Rinko has been in contact with humans for too long and knows them for too long. After all, the only beings in this world who can communicate with him, besides demons, are humans. His long life can basically be divided into two parts: the one he lived with demons, the one he lived with humans, and a small, very small part that is a mixture of the two. But now he can't remember any of those stages very clearly anymore.

He should regret it because he forgot, but in reality he won't, because he's not even quite sure what he forgot. Humans shed tears when they lose something precisely because they remember when they had it, and that's why they shed tears at the moment of loss.

But he wouldn't shed a tear, because he didn't actually remember what he had forgotten or what he had lost. Had he ever shed a tear? He asked himself. It seemed not, or perhaps he had. He didn't know. Maybe Muzan would remember, but this wasn't a question that was appropriate to ask now.

He could only think about other things.

So the problem comes back again.

Humanity.

Yes, he understands humans because a part of his life has actually been spent interacting with them. He has met many people and learned a lot about humans that he didn't know before and might never learn from ghosts again.

Even so, to this day.

Rin still felt that...

In reality, he never truly understood a human being.

There isn't one.

Because for ghosts...

Humans are such strange creatures.

They are naive to the point of recklessness, brave to the point of purity, passionate more fiery than flames, and angry more scathing than blades.

Hard to understand.

Because humans weren't always so complex. On the contrary, they initially seemed quite simple, almost like demons.

It's like a friendly creature, a simple creature, a creature that's not much different from him.

Rinko's current belated realization might be the reason he was initially interested in humans. Before he understood food, he first understood the essence of food, and first understood the human species itself.

Therefore, he regarded humans as friends, not just food.

This was a clever accident, like a prank. The blind god in the sky mistook punishment for a gift and threw it at a ghost, thinking he had done a good deed, but he never imagined that this would change his fate forever.

Perhaps everything was destined from the first time he saw humans, but when he first smelled not the scent of humans, but the aroma of their burning food, everything was already set in stone.

He treated food as food and humans as humans, and thus he became a strange ghost.

So when a human looked at him and reached out his hand instead of the knife behind his back, he thought, perhaps humans are friends.

Humans are truly strange creatures.

They could easily incorporate him into a group and integrate him into an environment. It seemed that as long as they met, with just a glance, a few words, an outstretched hand, or a cup of tea placed in front of them, they were no longer just two strangers.

They are no longer just two separate beings.

The bridge of communication was built in that instant, and a subtle relationship and an invisible bond were born in that instant.

So they became 'friends'.

It's as if humans are truly such simple, easily interpreted, and easily understood creatures.

But that's not the truth, at least not the whole story.

The strange thing didn't happen before that, but after that. Rinko had heard such words from other humans.

Trust is a strange thing; it's hard to build but easy to destroy.

He felt that this was not the case. At least for humans, trust is something they seem to be born with, so abundant that it can be generously shared with everyone. But just because of this, it becomes difficult to truly establish trust and truly understand it.

Each person is like a forest, hiding themselves in a cabin on a mountaintop. They allow everyone to enter the forest, but they don't provide a map. They allow anyone to walk in, but almost no one can truly understand another person.

That wasn't pretense, nor was it deception, but it wasn't honesty either.

Humans always present a similar, superficial image to the outside world, showing their best side at the beginning. It's a vague, abstract concept and image, an empty shell, insufficient to construct a real, concrete, living person.

This is very strange from the perspective of ghosts.

Because ghosts are easy to understand. They laugh when they are happy, get angry when they are unhappy, and take action when they are angry. Their teeth and claws are weapons. They kill when they want to kill, swing their fists when they want to fight, express their dissatisfaction with their eyes, and stare at or grab at what they like.

It's like a fully unfolded book, written in the most straightforward and simple words, forming a complete, living ghost.

But humans are different.

Likes and dislikes, happiness and unhappiness—everything is different, which makes things troublesome and complicated.

They shed tears when they were happy, put on a smile when they were sad, and remained gentle when they were angry, yet they pronounced death sentences with gentle voices.

Shinazugawa would coldly toss him a bag that he said was unnecessary, while Shinobu would smile and give him medicine.

too weird.

Isn't it.

Why do that?

How can he understand a human being?

How do we understand a human being?

Rinko thought about it, but couldn't come up with an answer.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Just like this moment.

A dying human being said he could understand the meaning of eternity.

He criticizes an immortal being for being unable to understand what eternity truly is.

And that sentence.

The sentence that changed the atmosphere.

"Once you die, all ghosts will be destroyed, right?"

The wind arose out of nowhere, without warning or preparation. The quiet night was windless, but it was a signal of a real change in the atmosphere, a sense of oppression, like a threat, or perhaps mixed with something else. What was it? It was an emotion that Rinko had never truly experienced and could not understand.

But he knew this feeling—the blood seemed to flow backward, the heart seemed to stop, and breathing was momentarily suppressed. He remembered this feeling; he had experienced it briefly before.

But what was this emotion? He asked himself, pondered, speculated, rummaged through the empty basket of memories, but found no answer.

He couldn't think any further.

-

Just like Rinko said.

He cannot understand humans, and he will never truly understand them.

But in that instant, he did understand what Ubuyashiki meant.

Death is not something to be afraid of.

Because at this moment, and even before that, from the moment he met Ubuyashiki until this moment that changed everything, he had never felt any emotion similar to fear from that man.

Ubuyashiki is not afraid.

He is not afraid of death.

He accepted it all with equanimity.

Humans could not survive such power. Ubuyashiki had prepared for all of this before it happened, which is why the scent of wisteria was so strong that he could not even detect the human scent.

Because beneath that lies something far more dangerous and threatening than the wisteria blossoms.

The explosion was completely unexpected, not just without any warning, but as if no one in the house knew it was going to happen.

Rinko still remembers everything he saw in that moment.

Ubuyashiki's expression remained unchanged; he sat there as if he were ready to face his death. Amane sat there beside him, making no sound, as if nothing in this world could affect her.

Muzan stood there.

The snow is still falling outside the window.

Rinko only realized later that the girl's song had disappeared because, in that instant, the world became too quiet.

Quietly eerie.

It was that one second.

The first thing that appeared was fire, and the flames engulfed the entire room almost instantly. No one could escape this range. The flames were not only inside the room but also all around. As far as the eye could see, there was a blinding light, and something that reflected a cold light was mixed in with the exploding flames.

There wouldn't be such a glaring light at night.

It's almost like an artificial sun, both in terms of light and temperature.

There was no sound for that second. The tinnitus didn't even have time to appear before the eardrums were torn apart by the explosion in the first second, completely shattered. Not only the eardrums, but also the body. The flames were still visible, but the next second they almost lost control of their bodies.

The falling snowflakes and splattered blood were evaporated by the high temperature at the same moment, leaving not a trace.

In that instant, no one could react. Under the intense physical reaction, Rinko's body shrank, her hands tightened, and she gripped the bag tightly, clutching everything inside.

His eyes turned upwards, looking at Muzan not far away. This was everything that existed in his little world.

In that moment when he was closest to death, this was the only thing he could think of.